can’t you beat her EAT them. Italians are coping with the blue crab invasion.
Eat
The crabs eat eel, clam and clam stocks and wreak havoc on the fishing nets.
A fisherman holds a blue crab in the lagoon of Orbetello, Italy, Monday August 14, 2023. Every morning in the lagoon of Orbetello, Tuscan fishermen retrieve nets left in the water to catch sea bream, sea bass and especially eels, but increasingly also eels , thousands of ravenous blue crabs to catch, an alien species that has invaded the seas across Italy, causing significant damage to marine ecosystems and fisheries. (AP Photo/Luigi Navarra) AP
ORBETELLO, Italy (AP) — Italians are battling an invasion of predatory blue crabs with an attitude rooted in centuries of culinary experience: if you can’t defeat them, eat them.
Fishermen, lobby groups and environmentalists are warning of the risks of a summer surge in populations of the rapidly multiplying invasive species. The crabs eat eel, clam and clam stocks and wreak havoc on the fishing nets.
But since the crab is here to stay, farm lobby group Coldiretti and fisheries associations have organized a series of events this summer to introduce Italian taste buds to a staple of American summer cooking.
Experience the menu at a Venetian agriturismo farm hotel that hosted a Coldiretti event this summer: rosemary crab salad; Venetian-style crabs (with onions and vinegar); and noodles with shrimp mixed with garlic.
“We usually make shrimp on the grill or, as in this case, with linguine,” says Davide Sergio, chef at the restaurant at La Peschereccia, a fishermen’s cooperative in Orbetello on the Tuscan coast.
But the new menu items are evidence of a potentially devastating threat to Italy’s marine ecosystem and fisheries, particularly the prized mussel harvest, which is a key ingredient in another Italian staple: spaghetti alle vongole.
According to 2021 data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Italy is the largest mussel producer in Europe and the third largest in the world after China and South Korea.
But the blue crab – a strong and fast swimmer and a voracious and aggressive eater that has no natural enemies here except for the fishermen – has thrown Italy’s mussel and clam producers into a crisis. Fishing industry group Federagripesca estimates that over 50% of shellfish production was damaged this year.
The Italian government has allocated 2.9 million euros ($3.1 million) to combat the invasion, which is causing devastating shellfish harvests, but the problem is now affecting other types of fish farms in different parts of Italy.
In the lagoon of the Orbetello Nature Reserve, blue crabs feed on sea bream and eels, a valued winter catch that has supported the local economy for centuries and features prominently in many traditional dishes.
Now eels are found headless or torn to pieces. Fishermen often find torn nets from which all the fish have escaped, a testament to the crabs’ strong claws that can break through the net.
“He’s aggressive, he’s fast, he’s an animal of unacceptable intelligence. We are fighting this blue crab, but it is stronger than us because there are so many of them,” said Marco Giudici, who has been fishing in the Orbetello Lagoon for more than 40 years. He even has a battle scar: on one thumb he has the marks of a crab that almost broke its nail with a claw.
From the American shores they are Callinectes Sapidus has spread all over the world, probably transported in ships’ ballast water, and has thrived in the Mediterranean, not only in Italy but also in Albania, Spain and France.
On the Tuscan coast, crabs were still a rarity last year. Hardly a wooden fishing boat returns to dock these days without dozens of blue crabs aboard.
“From an ecological point of view, blue crabs are a real problem because they attack the juvenile fish, the eels, and disrupt the fish’s food cycle because they eat mussels and oysters,” said Pierluigi Piro, president of the La Peschereccia cooperative.
“Unfortunately, they’re growing exponentially because they seem to have found their ideal habitat in the Orbetello Lagoon,” Piro said.
To compound fishermen’s concerns, a female blue crab produces around half a million eggs a year, with estimates suggesting as many as 2 million. Marine biologists believe that rising sea temperatures could encourage their spread and reproduction.
“Typically, this crab does not live well at certain times of the year when the water temperature drops below 10 degrees (Celsius), but now finds the ideal temperature 12 months of the year,” said Enrica Franchi, marine biologist at the Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Siena.
Unlike northeastern Italy, where so many crabs are caught that most cannot be sold, in Tuscany almost all crabs are currently being resold to restaurants or supermarkets, which have been displaying them in their fish counters for a few weeks.
The Orbetello cooperative sells the shrimp for 8 euros per kilogram (US$4 per pound) to individuals or supermarkets.
The restaurant sells four grilled crabs or linguine with crab, tomato, onion, basil and chili pepper sauce for 10 euros ($11).
“It’s very popular with people and sells out in the first half hour,” said chef Sergio at La Peschereccia.
