The James River Blues:
Blue catfish, cause or symptom of Bay health?

“Here, feel this,” the goop-covered student says as he holds out a gray-white, whiskered creature. A thumb’s massaging sweep over the slimy, clear coating on the fish’s belly reveals its last meal.

“Those are Asiatic clams in there,” he says. The gelatinous stomach contains hard, dense bumps the size of small pebbles, and much more than a catfish the size of an eggplant should be able to hold. With a flick of the wrist, he tosses the fish overboard into the warm, summer waters of the Chickahominy River.

Read the whole story here.

Find out more about blue catfish in this NOAA Fisheries news feature.

This transmedia narrative was produced by science communication interns Paige Bellamy, Jessica Taylor, Sarah Ruiz and Daniel Diaz-Etchevehere as part an ongoing project to research the benefits of transmedia over traditional media for science communication. Photography, direction, and editing by VASG communications center manager Ian Vorster.