An ‘immense protein factory,’ but 340 kinds of fish? I had no idea.

My Baltimore Sun ancestor, H.L. Mencken, called the Chesapeake Bay the “immense protein factory,” but I’ll bet he did not know how many types of fish are found in the massive estuary. I had no idea, either, until the other day when I came across these numbers from the fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: 348 species of finfish and 173 species of shellfish. I got to that number this week while working on Friday’s column and spending time with a research paper from a former Salisbury University graduate student, Zachary Crum (photo above). A couple of years ago, Crum spent a lot of time looking inside the stomachs of large blue catfish, a Chesapeake invasive with a big appetite.

In examining more than 1,000 specimens from the Nanticoke River, Crum logged 80 types of fish, evidence of the blue catfish’s eclectic appetite. At one point, in one of the big cats, Crum found the remains of a full-grown wood duck. (Crum’s devotion to this kind of science reminds me of Hooper in “Jaws,” when he opened a shark to see if the anglers of Amity Island had slain the right one.)

A commercial fisherman in Virginia waters once caught a blue catfish with two snakeheads in its mouth — that is, one invasive species eating another. 

Below is a photograph of snakehead filets expertly prepared by Bill “Eel” Gillespie. He and Chris Avaritt, another kayak angler and the subject of my Friday column, have eaten this fish several times and they give the thumbs up — pan fried, air fried, sauteed in butter and lemon, cut into nuggets and batter-fried. “I tell everybody who asks, whatever you put on it, that’s what it tastes like,” says Avaritt. “It has absolutely no fishy taste at all.” I thought snakehead was great the first time I had it, but that was several years ago. Between Avaritt and Gillespie, I have a feeling there’s a filet in my future.