Italian Fishermen Find Lifeline by Exporting Invasive Blue Crabs

Italian fishermen have begun finding a new lifeline by exporting blue crabs, a troublesome alien invasive species.

According to the Associated Press on the 2nd local time, the Polesine Fishermen's Cooperative in the northeastern Italian region of Veneto is expected to generate up to 20 million euros (approx. 31.6 billion KRW) in annual revenue this year from blue crab exports.

This marks a dramatic turnaround for local fishermen who had even faced a declared state of emergency due to the blue crabs.

Native to the North American Atlantic coast, blue crabs recently migrated to the Mediterranean coast due to rising water temperatures driven by climate change and began multiplying rapidly.

With their population exploding starting around 2023, native Italian green crabs plummeted, and massive damage was inflicted on clam farming, the primary livelihood of local fishermen.

Fishermen caught and incinerated blue crabs in droves while also releasing tens of thousands of octopuses, a natural predator of the crabs, to reduce the population, but it was not enough.

Locally, a consumption promotion campaign was even launched under the slogan "If you can't beat them, eat them," but this also failed to yield significant results.

In the aftermath, the annual revenue of the Polesine Fishermen's Cooperative shrank to 15 million euros (approx. 23.7 billion KRW), and the number of cooperative members, which once reached 1,500, dropped to 850.

Subsequently, the Polesine fishermen completely shifted their strategy and began seeking new export routes to destinations such as Asia.

Currently, blue crabs are traded at 1.3 euros per kilogram (kg), and fishermen are shipping out 100 to 150 kg boxes of crabs every morning, the AP reported.

The crabs caught this way are shipped frozen to Sri Lanka.

Local workers manually extract the crab meat to make processed products, and some of these products are even re-imported into Italy.

Paolo Mancin, president of the Polesine Fishermen's Cooperative, told the AP, "We hope that the crab meat returning from Sri Lanka will help open the hearts of Italian consumers who had been indifferent to the consumption promotion campaigns."

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.