"Give Them to South Korea If You're Going to Throw Them Away..." The Surprising Turn of Events for 'Blue Crabs' Sweeping Italy

Three years ago, these blue crabs that swept Italy became a hot topic in Korea as well.

The North American native 'blue crab.'

While they were a nuisance that devastated clam farms in Italy, reactions poured in from Korea such as "We can't get enough of them because we don't have them" and "We should just import them."

Three years later, what has happened?

Surging rapidly around the Po River Delta since 2023, blue crabs devoured clams indiscriminately, causing massive damage to local fishermen.

Even the Italian government stepped in to catch blue crabs.

In the Polesine region alone, about 2.3 million kg of blue crabs were caught and incinerated over two years.

However, with a reproductive capacity so strong that a single female can lay up to 8 million eggs in a single season, there were limits to reducing their population.

Recently, even experiments using their natural predator, the octopus, to reduce the blue crab population have been underway.

And a bigger change has occurred.

Instead of catching and getting rid of them, they have started catching and selling them.

Blue crabs caught in Italy are boiled, frozen, and sent to Sri Lanka.

There, the meat is manually extracted and processed into crab meat and claw meat before being exported to countries around the world, including the United States and Europe.

Some of it even returns to Italy.

[Paolo Mancin / President, Polesine Fishermen's Cooperative Consortium : Now in Italy, we must completely change our mindset, change our strategy, and turn this disaster into an opportunity.]

Just as we wondered three years ago, are Italians now eagerly eating these crabs too?

Not quite yet.

[Stefania Marchesini / Local Restaurant Owner : Italians do not want to eat this crustacean precisely because it invaded our seas, and so we are all angry about it.]

There is also a big difference in price.

Blue crabs cost about 1.3 euros per kg, while the clams that blue crabs devour cost about 10 euros per kg.

Once a hot topic in Korea with people saying "we can't get enough of them," and a creature caught and incinerated in Italy.

Three years later, Italy is shifting its response from eating this headache directly to catching, processing, and selling it on the global market.

(Reported by Sim Yeong-gu | Video edited by Na Hong-hee | Design by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.