Italy tries to eat itself out of a blue crab invasion

Beneath the fog-shrouded waters of Venice’s lagoon, there lurks a silent killer. Numbering in its millions, it is wreaking havoc on one of the most delicate and productive marine ecosystems in the world.

The Atlantic blue crab – named for its vivid blue claws – was introduced accidentally to Italian waters, probably via the ballast water held on cargo ships.

The species originates from the eastern coast of North America but is now thriving in its new home – using its powerful pincers to tear into clams, mussels, prawns and other seafood that is prized by Italians, particularly for family feasts at Christmas and New Year based around classics such as spaghetti alle vongole – spaghetti with clams.

Agile and voracious, the crabs wreck fishing nets, devour the fish trapped inside and cause millions of euros worth of damage.

But Italians have come up with a potential solution for dealing with the killer crustacean – eat them.

Their numbers are so great that they are cheap to buy – much cheaper than native crabs.

“They’re everywhere, it’s an invasion. It’s a very aggressive species,” said Andrea Rossi, 57, a fisherman who is the fourth generation of his family to make a living from the Venetian lagoon, a labyrinth of islands, channels and mud shoals.

He lives on the tiny island of Burano, renowned for its vibrantly painted cottages where 150 fishermen and their families live.

“We throw down a net, come back half an hour later and there’s 30 to 40kg of blue crabs inside. They destroy the nets, cutting holes as big as this,” he said, stretching out his hands to shoulder width.

In the softly lit interior of the Algiubagiò restaurant, on a canal bank overlooking the jade-coloured lagoon, executive chef Daniele Zennaro serves up his latest creation.

He mashed some crab meat, fashioned it into the shape of a fish, deep-fried it and placed it on a bed of algae-infused pureed potato. Fried seaweed and beads of fish roe add to the tiny tableau, a culinary work of art.

“The concept came from the fact that the blue crab is an invasive species and not very well received by people. We thought we’d present it in a more familiar form, in the shape of a fish,” he said.

Mr Zennaro says the blue crab has undergone a subtle evolution since it arrived in Italian waters – for the better.

“The taste of the crabs has matured since they arrived here. At the beginning, it was a bit bland, insipid. Now it is more savoury, more complex. It has been nourished by the lagoon ecosystem.”

Restaurants across Italy are finding new ways to use blue crab in their menus, from salads to pasta dishes.

“From about a year ago, there has been an explosion in the use of blue crab in restaurants. People are also buying it from fishmongers and cooking it at home,” said the chef.

Its surge in popularity is helped by the price of clams doubling because blue crabs eat them, Mr Zennaro explained.

Asked whether the blue crab represents a threat or a commercial opportunity, Giulio Antonello, the owner of Algiubagio restaurant, did not hesitate with his reply.

“A threat. It’s a disaster out in the lagoon, a massacre. A lot of businesses are hurting – the fishermen who grow the clams, the wholesalers, the buyers, everybody.”

Given the choice, Venetians would rather eat their beloved granseola (spider crab), along with moeche – crabs which are eaten when they shed their shells twice a year, but have almost doubled in price in a decade.

Mr Antonello said: “The blue crab is like a virus. Their numbers are increasing exponentially. We won’t resolve the problem until there is a predator for the blue crab.”

In Venice’s historic Rialto fish market, where lobsters, fish and still-living prawns are sold on glistening beds of ice, the Atlantic blue crab is also seen as an existential threat to the lagoon.

“There’s a fish that we call, in Venetian dialect, the gò (in Italian ghiozzo, in English goby) which makes a fabulous risotto. But the crabs now eat them when the fish are small. The fish is declining and the price has risen to 30 euros a kilo,” said fishmonger Andrea Vio.

On the island of Mazzorbo, chefs Chiara Pavan and Francesco Brutto, who run a Michelin one-star restaurant called Venissa, see the blue crab as an opportunity to be embraced.

“The boom in crab numbers really began about two years ago. We started seeing a lot more of them here in the upper Adriatic,” said Erica Zelante, who handles the restaurant’s public relations.

“Our chefs decided that it would make sense from an environmental point of view to start using this invasive species,” she said, adding that they discovered the blue crab works well with saffron as well as with spaghetti cooked in garlic, oil and chillies.

Blue crabs have caused 100 million euros of damage so far to the fishing industry in Italy, according to the agricultural lobby organisation Coldiretti.

Blue crabs have been in the Adriatic, in small numbers, since the 1940s. Authorities believe the recent explosion in their population is linked to climate change and warming seas.

Cristiano Corazzari, the politician in charge of fisheries for the Veneto region, which includes Venice, says the impact of the blue crab has been like “an earthquake”.

The production of clams has been cut by more than 90 per cent because of the alien crab, he said.

“It’s been devastating. The crab has a very high reproduction rate. And it eats everything that it finds.”

But Italian authorities have woken up to the threat posed by the blue crab and are starting to do something about it, helping fishermen to adapt to the aggressive predator.

Clams and mussels will be raised inside tough new nets to prevent the crabs from clawing their way in.

Synthetic sheets will be laid on the seabed to stop the crabs emerging from the mud and preying on the molluscs.

Scientists are even experimenting to see whether ultrasound can be used to ward off the voracious killers.

The region of Veneto has spent around five million euros on these initiatives. The national government has contributed an additional 10 million euros, with plans to throw millions more at the problem in the 2025 budget.

Italy is exporting the blue crabs to countries like the US, South Korea and Sri Lanka, but it is still not enough to put a dent in the population.

“Our fishermen are having to adapt to the new situation, it’s a big revolution,” said Mr Corazzari, the politician in charge of fisheries.

“We’ll have to learn to live with the blue crab. But we’re determined to save the seafood sector. It’s a very big part of our coastal traditions. This is not just about the economy – it’s about our culture.”

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