The MAWS Act creates a three-year pilot program (2027-2029) that pays companies to buy blue catfish from local fishermen in the Chesapeake Bay area. Blue catfish are an invasive species that's damaging the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem by eating native fish and disrupting the food chain, so the government wants to incentivize their removal by creating a market for them.

Here's how it works: The federal government will give money to companies that manufacture animal feed or fish farm feed. These companies use that money to purchase blue catfish directly from watermen (local fishermen) or from seafood processors who buy from those fishermen. The government will set a minimum price per pound for the fish, and companies can use up to 15% of their funding to cover transportation costs to processing facilities. The program gets $2 million per year in funding.

To participate, fishermen must certify they caught the catfish in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and processors must verify their fish came from local watermen. The goal is twofold: help local fishing communities earn income by selling an invasive species that's normally worthless, while also reducing the blue catfish population that's harming the bay's native fish and environment. After the pilot ends, the government will study what worked—how many fish were caught, whether it helped the ecosystem, how much money fishermen made, and whether this approach could be expanded to other areas with invasive species problems like the Mississippi River.