The Chesapeake Bay’s beloved blue crab has made its way to Spain as an invasive Mediterranean species— and it is so despised by fishermen that they have compared it to ISIS.
Now, European marine biologists are studying our favorite crustacean to try to control its population explosion.
On the Bay, we herald the opening of crab season (it officially kicked off on Monday), and we love blue crab so much that we’ll pay top dollar to sit around a picnic table covered in newspaper, picking meat out of jagged pieces of shell.
Meanwhile in Spain, the American blue crab is described as “an invasive voracious alien species, with no known predators and with high reproductive and survival rates, which has now spread throughout the Mediterranean.”
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11 comments:
2 words can fix it: Bahia vieja (Old Bay)
Yeah, and I guarantee you if our biologist went over there they would say there was a shortage and try to implement a bunch of regulations.
Send a container load of Old Bay seasoning to Spain. Suddenly that "invasive species" will become a delicacy that they can't catch enough of to satisfy demand.
Well ship those rascals back we have steam pots ready for those traitors!!
need to send some boys from Smith Island and Crisfield over there to take care of the problem.
"no known predators"? really? guess they dont have fish over there to eat them? maybe they need to import some rock
They don't know what a gold mine they have! If they figure it out it could hurt the local picking plants.
Same thing the Chinese say about America’s Snake Fish invasion. “What’s the problem? Send them some chopsticks, Snake Fish is delicious”
"no known predators"??? The number one predator of the blue crab in the Chesapeake Bay is humans. They will catch, sell, buy and eat every last one if their harvest wasn't regulated by the DNR. Over harvest is the #1 threat to the blue crab in the Chesapeake Bay. All Spain needs is some entrepreneurs and some marketing to establish a very profitable industry from this "invasive species."
12:19
I think you are right. I have been seeing some older photos of people catching, eating or displaying crabs from years ago. They were much larger than anything I have seen in the last several years.
A good sized Jimmie was over 7" in the day. A hundred years ago, most harvested oysters had a shell over 6" across. In those days, a couple of crabs and a dozen oysters was a big meal.
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