September 10, 2o23 — The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Customer Services (VDACS) – International Marketing Division sponsored a seafood promotional event bringing in international chefs, food critics and writers to visit a blue catfish processing plant on Aug. 30 in Hampton, Va.
The group toured the processing plant of L. D. Amory Company Inc. one of only three blue catfish processing plants in the state. Meade Amory of Armory Seafood explained to the group that during the 1970s and ‘80s blue catfish were introduced to the James, Rappahannock and York river basins as a new recreational fish by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Blue cats are native to Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri rivers.
The catfish quickly spread throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed into nearly every major tributary and are now being seen in North Carolina waters too, says Amory.