Advisory committee recommends phased expansion for blue catfish electrofishing, debates size limits and buffers

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission's Fin Fish Advisory Committee on Feb. 12 discussed staff-proposed changes to commercial blue catfish electrofishing regulations, recommended expanding the fishery's permitted areas and increasing the number of electrofishing licenses, and heard extended public comment on trophy-size protections and buffer zones near shore recreation areas.

Alexa Galvan, VMRC staff, summarized the proposed changes: "Proposed changes include expanding the number of licenses from 3 to 10, expanding areas. This would include adding the Chickahominy River as a separate harvest area and adding the Mattaponi to the area that already includes the Pamunkey," she said, reading the staff proposal.

Staff proposals presented to the committee included: increasing the number of commercial electrofishing licenses, adding the Chickahominy River as a separate harvest area, adding the Mattaponi River to the Pamunkey/Pamunkey-area harvest area, removing the existing maximum-size limit and tolerance for blue catfish taken by electrofishing, and removing eligibility constraints that had limited entry to electrofishing licenses to harvesters with a history of catfish harvest.

The committee heard detailed public comment from charter captains, commercial electrofish…