The Army of the Potomac

The Army of the Potomac was the main fighting force of the Union army in the Civil War. It was the army that forced General Robert E. Lee to surrender at Appomattox in 1865.

While that army is dead and gone, its efforts relegated to history textbooks and war memorials, a new blue-colored army now wages war in and around the Potomac River: The blue catfish.

Much like the Rebel army of the CSA, however, these blue catfish are invaders from the South who are determined to put those who fight them into a “perilous” situation, pitting catfish against catfish, business against business, and senator against senator.

True, these catfish are not armed with grapeshot and bayonets, but their ravaging has not left the Potomac or the people around it unscathed.

For starters, blue catfish don’t belong in the Potomac River. They were introduced in the 1970s for sports fishing. But their numbers grew and a 2015 estimate pegged their numbers at upwards of 100 million.

Much like Sherman’s March to the Sea–where his men laid waste the Atlantic countryside–these blue invaders are a bane to the Potomac’s ecosystem. A 2011 review stated that “blue catfish in these systems are apex predators that feed extensively on important fishery resources.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed this: “Left unchecked, they [blue catfish] threaten native species, including endangered and commercially important species.”

Thus, the Virginians fought back. The fish were already entrenched in the river, making removal impossible, so they did the next best thing: Eat them.

Logical, right? Local restaurants seemed to think so. Around 200 Chesapeake-area restaurants and several retail lines like Whole Foods started selling blue cat.

But like most victories, this victory against the catfish was not assured.

Confederate General Stonewall Jackson’s death was caused by his own men. Similarly, the Chesapeake citizens dedicated to fighting the Southern blues were needlessly hindered by an indirect and almost certainly unintended attack from our very own federal government.

To make a long story short, annoyed Southern catfish farmers and their lackeys in Congress passed a law in 2008 that changed food safety regulations for catfish. These Southern farmers were being out-competed by Vietnamese catfish farmers, so Congress moved authority for regulating catfish from the FDA (who regulates all other types of seafood) to the USDA (who had never regulated seafood before then).

But the USDA’s “stricter” standards were the equivalent of friendly fire. One Chesapeake-area seafood processor complained that “It [the USDA inspection program] has become a choke point. It actually limits what we can produce.”

Other industry members echoed that concern. Even the Governor of Maryland sent a letter to the USDA asking for relief. In a joint press release, Virginia’s Senators said that the switch “undermines Virginia’s efforts to employ market-based solutions to reduce the population of blue catfish…”

Thus, much like the beginning of the Civil War–when people thought it would be a short affair and even picnicked before battles–the battle against the second Army of the Potomac met unexpected troubles. For the sake of the river, its resources, and the residents around it, let’s hope that this time the blue army surrounding DC isn’t the one that comes out on top.