As the morning fog lifted over Maine's York River, Mike Masi and his interns stood on a dock sorting through a mound of one of the region's most despised crabs, hoping to find a few to end up on a gastronome's plate somewhere in New England. The trick is to ID invasive European green crabs that are about to shed their hard shell—aka molt, revealing a softer exterior—and are popular at restaurants. Not only do these green crabs fetch more money—Masi can get $3 a crab at market compared to as little as 8 cents for a hard shell—but catching them provides a service of sorts to the ocean's ecosystem, per the AP.
"Just about everyone hates them, and we're trying to turn them into a premium seafood product," said Masi, whose company, shell+claw, is the only one that commercially cultivates these crabs. Masi is part of a growing movement across New England aiming to lessen the crabs' destructive impact by developing new markets. Others are putting green crabs in pet treats, fish sauce, and even a line of green crab whiskey in New Hampshire. The species, also known as Carcinus maenas, made its way from Europe to the East Coast in the ballast waters of ships hundreds of years ago. Numbering in the tens of millions, these crabs outcompete Atlantic rock crab and juvenile lobster, destroy eelgrass beds, and undermine salt marsh banks.
They're also costing the region's shellfish industry tens of millions of dollars each year, as they eat mussels, oysters, and soft-shell clams. Green crabs, known for their brown or green shells and five spines on either side of their eyes, have taken advantage of warming ocean waters, a result of climate change. The crabs are able to survive New England winters while also thriving in diverse habitats. They eat almost anything and produce plenty of young—a female releases up to 185,000 eggs once or twice a year. These traits make them among the world's most successful invasive species, expanding from the West Coast into Alaska, and as far as South Africa, Japan, Argentina, and Australia.
"They're really pretty resilient little guys," said the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Carolyn Tepolt. Since 2021, advocates have seen a more than a tenfold spike in eateries offering crab. To Masi, however, it feels like industrial-scale green crabbing is still a long way off. His business has grown since he began five years ago, but he says it still feels like a hobby, bringing in up to just $20,000 annually. "I am cautiously optimistic," Masi said. "We are one breakthrough from making this a profitable business." More here.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
