Recently, another news item that has been on the minds of foodies has appeared – a large amount of Italian blue crabs are flooding the country and are getting out of control!
Invasive species are flooding the country, something that should be left to the stomachs of humans to fundamentally fix!
But in Italy, the blue crab is a thorn in the side of Italian fishermen, a plague reincarnated!
The blue crab, known as the Atlantic blue crab, was accidentally brought to Italy by an American cargo ship decades ago.
Like other invasive species, the blue crabs found no natural enemies or competitors in Italian waters and began to eat, drink and reproduce like crazy.
Thus began the disaster for the Italian fishing industry…
Until then, Italy had always prided itself on its fishing industry, producing clams and mussels, Tuscan silkfish and eels.
Italy’s Po River delta is a UNESCO-designated wetland area and has a global reputation for pink oysters, mussels and clams. Italy is also the largest producer of clams in Europe.
However, the accidental invasion of blue crabs has “wiped out” half of the native species. This summer, Italy’s famous clam species have virtually disappeared.
The blue crab feeds on mussels and clams, especially when they are young. If you catch someone’s baby and eat it, you’re not going to wipe out their offspring, are you?
Moreover, the blue crab is also a ruthless character with weapons, encountering eels, directly cutting people’s heads, encountering fishermen’s nets, directly pincer through the escape.
In recent years, Italian fishermen have been catching more and more eels without heads, broken juvenile mussels and clam shells…
Actually, in previous years it wasn’t nearly as bad as this year. I’m sure you’ve heard about the hot weather in Europe this summer, with high air temperatures and sea water temperatures rising from previous years. And this has caused the warmth-loving blue crab to go crazy with seed production, spawning 2 million eggs a year, the highest number in years!
Experts say that blue crabs reproduce and move slowly in seawater below 10 degrees Celsius, but now that global temperatures have risen and seawater has warmed, blue crabs are “on the rise”: there is no longer a so-called winter season that can stop me from reproducing!
Recently, fishermen in Sacodigoro have been catching about seven tons of blue crabs a day from the lagoon.
The immediate consequence of the blue crab’s frenzied growth is that this year’s production of Italian mussels and clams has been cut in half, and fishermen are already expecting next year to be even worse: production will fall by 80-90%!
“When we pull up our nets, we find them strewn with broken, empty clam shells,” said one Italian fisherman, adding that
“They eat clams that are about to be harvested as well as those that have just been born, which means that next year’s supply has basically gone to the dogs.”
Blue crabs have put immediate career-destroying pressure on local fishermen. Over 1,500 fishing-related jobs are expected to be at risk this year, and the Italian fishing industry has already lost millions of dollars in revenue because of blue crabs.
The Italian government has declared a state of emergency in the country’s fishing industry for the invasive blue crab this year, and has shelled out a massive 2.9 million euros to try to solve Italy’s blue crab crisis.
Officials are now focusing on how to “destroy” the invasive animal and protect the native species, rather than catching it and finding another solution.
But some officials, seeing the potential and hope in eating the crab, are actively promoting the change of the blue crab into a food item in rural areas.
Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently took the initiative to show blue crabs on her dinner plate at a farmhouse, offering an alternative solution to Italy’s fishing crisis.
But given that Italians and other Europeans don’t have a tradition of eating blue crabs, these blue crabs won’t be hitting European tables very often in the short term.
In the meantime, Italians are concerned that starting to catch and process blue crabs could profoundly change the chain of their own nation’s traditional seafood, leading to a loss of traditional techniques and crafts as well as gastronomic heritage, culinary traditions.
“This economy not only provides livelihoods for the community,” said the governor of Emilia-Romagna, “but also represents Italian and European excellence, like other specialties of the region, such as Parma ham or Parmesan cheese.”
Lionello Cera, chef at Antica Osteria, a two Michelin-starred restaurant in the northern Po Delta, vetoed blue crabs outright when asked if they would be on his menu.
“They are destroying our lagoons and some people have suggested they could replace our granseola (local spider crab), but my answer is no.”
In Rome’s Testacchio neighborhood, one restaurateur said he might eventually offer the blue crab as an option for diners, but as long as clams and mussels remain available, he will “prioritize Italian cuisine” before succumbing to the practice of selling “enemy fish”. The practice of selling “enemy fish”.
Today, Italy is still reeling from the blue crab crisis, losing money and jobs. But right after the news broke, Koreans were abuzz!
Yes, blue crab is one of the top seafood delicacies in Korea.
Now, fast-moving Korean merchants are already working on a case with Italian fishing companies to import large quantities of Italian blue crabs.
Koreans love blue crabs, and the raw marinated version is popular. The dish is called “gejang,” and it can be marinated in soy sauce.
The dish is called “Gejang” and can be marinated in soy sauce or with more aggressive chili peppers.
A single serving of gejang costs about 35,000 won ($30) at a regular restaurant, and can be double that at a fine dining establishment.
South Korea’s supply of blue crabs is almost entirely imported, with the country being the supplier of 97 percent of the country’s blue crab imports, for example.
In 2022, South Korea imported 12,867 tons of blue crabs.
This year, even after the release of contaminated water from Japan’s Fukushima, sales of Korean blue crabs continued at a similar level to previous years.
Now, hearing the news that they can expect to eat imported blue crabs at a reduced price, Koreans are saying out loud: welcome! Cheaper please!
Here’s what Korean netizens are saying.
“Originally, Europeans didn’t eat crabs, crayfish, conch …… or anything like that. Rather than being tasteless, there’s a very valid reason why it’s harder to pick out than meat, requires a lot of effort, and produces a lot of food waste.
It’s like in our country, there is no such (there may have been in the past, but I guess it doesn’t exist now) culture of eating fish with bones and putting them in the mouths of children.
In any case, just as we import 90% of our conch from the British North Sea, it seems likely that we import all our blue crabs from Italy.”
“These days the male crabs are full of meat and sweet flavor. They say the sky is the limit, blue crabs have been caught in abundance and are cheap, so let’s buy some and eat them. Fellow countrymen, let’s save the fishermen and the country together~!”
“I want to eat it too.”
“I want to know how much of the middleman’s profit the wholesaler eats and sells to the consumer.”
“Even abroad, crabs like jumbo crabs are expensive ingredients, so why are blue crabs a cold meal?”
“It would be nice to import as many fresh and quality ingredients as possible to meet domestic demand. The choice of demand depends on the consumer.”
“You must come soon, blue crab, while it’s ripe! I’m waiting with my mouth closed!”
“It looks delicious, hurry up and import it, I want to buy 100,000 won of blue crabs to make flavored crab paste”
“The fastest runner in the business opportunity is the winner.”
Well, it seems that foodies all over the world have the same mindset…