Blue Crabs - Italy & Mediterranean

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Blue crabs are known as a delicacy in the Mid-Atlantic and southern United States, from the Chesapeake to the Gulf Coasts. But in Italy, where this invasive species has migrated to Mediterranean waters with no natural predators, locals are only just learning of creative—and as it just so happens, delicious—solutions to combat the scourge.

View attachment 798750

see full story here
They are common far north of Chesapeake, plenty in NY and Long Island. I caught a bushel of them in two hours with one small trap here in New Jersey. One of our premier fisheries.
 
They are common far north of Chesapeake, plenty in NY and Long Island. I caught a bushel of them in two hours with one small trap here in New Jersey. One of our premier fisheries.
It depends on the year, last year was a hard year (I'm not an expert, couldn't tell you why), but this year I've been told by multiple sources that they're running better then they've ever seen, like in the last 40 years ever seen.

One guy said his traps on at his VA house just thrown off the dock are so full that he needs to use both hands to pull them out. The owner of a local prominent seafood spot said it's been unreal, and he crabs just about every day.
 
Due to Lessepsian migration, lionfish are already in the Mediterranean!
I know, the first one in the Adriatic was caught 500m from my bedroom window. They will be a lot easier to market as we already eat scorpion fish, meat is very similar, the lion fish even has better texture.
 
Due to Lessepsian migration, lionfish are already in the Mediterranean!

I know, the first one in the Adriatic was caught 500m from my bedroom window. They will be a lot easier to market as we already eat scorpion fish, meat is very similar, the lion fish even has better texture.
yeah, the Aegean is mostly fished out. Lionfish are going to be worse than Greek fishermen tossing dynamite into the water.
 
In July I was traveling western coast of Turkey, I visited many locations and only place I saw blue crabs was in Dalyan. Its a very beautiful small town and is home to loggerhead sea turtles and it lies in an estuary. There were many restaurants specialized on blue crabs and it did not look like it was invasive, rather the other way around; I have seen some farms.
 
lunch box for today

1692794611913.png
 
Due to Lessepsian migration, lionfish are already in the Mediterranean!

I know, the first one in the Adriatic was caught 500m from my bedroom window. They will be a lot easier to market as we already eat scorpion fish, meat is very similar, the lion fish even has better texture.
Well, we already eat Granseola, the very good crab typical of some Mediterranean islands (Capraia, for example). Delicious...
So adapting to blue crabs should not be difficult. I ate them in US and I love them..
Here an Italian granseola:
La-granseola-scaled.jpg
 
Well, we already eat Granseola, the very good crab typical of some Mediterranean islands (Capraia, for example). Delicious...
So adapting to blue crabs should not be difficult. I ate them in US and I love them..
Here an Italian granseola:
Steam it, crack open the legs, get the meat out, clean out the gills and guts and make a nice salad served in the head of the crab. We call them Grancigula, or Gransigula, leftovers from our Venetian overlords :D
Sadly that crab was so heavily overfished in my area that instead of thousands of them I see maybe one a year.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom