"If You're Going to Throw Them Away, Give Them to Us..." The Twist and Current Status of 'Blue Crabs' Sweeping Italy

Three years ago, the 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 in Korea poured in, saying, "We can't get enough of them to eat" and "We should just import them instead."

What happened three years later?

Surging rapidly around the Po River delta since 2023, the 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 reproduction rate so strong that a single female can lay up to 8 million eggs in a single season, there was a limit to reducing their population.

Recently, even experiments using natural predators, octopuses, to reduce the blue crab population are underway.

And a bigger change has occurred.

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

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

After the meat is meticulously hand-extracted locally and processed into crab meat and claw meat, they are exported to countries around the world, including the United States and Europe.

Some of them even find their way back to Italy.

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

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

Not yet.

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

There is also a big difference in price.

Blue crabs cost about 1.3 euros per kg, while the clams devoured by the blue crabs cost about 10 euros per kg.

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

Three years later, rather than eating this nuisance directly, Italy is changing its response to catching, processing, and selling them to the global market.

(Reported by Sim Yeong-gu | 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.