VIDEO: Catfish Farmers Feeling The Effects Of The Drought

MACON, Miss. (WCBI)-Catfish is a major source of income for many area farmers, and one of the most important factors to consider in the industry is water quality.

Jeff Lee knows a thing or two about raising catfish.  He’s been a catfish farmer for over two decades now.

“Since 1994, so this will be 22 years,” said Lee.

He’s a member of Lee’s Catfish, LLC and runs over 20 catfish ponds.

“It’s something that’s been a good thing to raise the family, and it’s been a good occupation for us,” said Lee.

However lately his ponds have been feeling the impact of the drought.
“It’s making the water real low,” he described. “It is getting low enough in some places that it’s starting to show dirt in the corners, in the shallow corners.”

And when that happens, it allows mud gets into the gills of the fish which can cause a big, and sometimes deadly problem for the fish.

“Their gills is how they breathe, and so if there’s not good oxygen in there or if they get mud in the gills, then they can’t breathe, then they come up and die,” Lee explained.

The drought is also creating some other difficulties.

“Being able to harvest has been the biggest problem,” said Lee. “When they harvest, they pull that net in there, into the shallow waters, and the mud and the fish, get a lot of fish in a closed place, I’d say that’s been the biggest challenge the drought has caused.”

Lee acknowledges that these are big problems, but he said things could have been worse.

He said The timing of the drought  occurred right as the season was about to an end.

So far, Lee said things have been remaining steady, but he knows that could change if things continue to be the way the are

“We hope in the winter time we get a bunch of rain and fills it back up,” he said. “If we don’t get it, and when we go into next summer, we’d have a big problem.”

In his 22 years as a catfish farmer, Lee said only once have the water levels not filled back up during the winter time.

That was in 2006, and he doesn’t expect that to be the case this year.