F R O M T H E C R O W E ’ S N E S T
Getting Crabby
Invasive European green crabs have become for the clam fishery what dogfish have been for the groundfish fishery for 50-plus years in the Gulf of Maine. The out-of-control feeding frenzy of dogfish on groundfish was ramped up about 20 years ago when the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) decided to protect them. These voracious creatures, aka sand sharks, were helping themselves to the cod and haddock that NMFS was also “protecting.”
Green crabs breed more rapidly in warm water. With the Gulf of Maine’s documented rapidly rising water temperatures, it seems certain that the green crab population here will boom. There are locations in Maine where the number of green crabs in the water is described as “unbelievable” by longtime fishermen.
The recent effort to develop a culinary market for green crabs is good news. Dealing with an invasive species problem like this needs a profit motive linked to population controls. But the profit needs to be great enough to make it worthwhile. The soft shell clam is not alone in this threat. Eelgrass is also on the green crab’s menu. Eelgrass is habitat for, among others, eels and lobster. Green crabs have been cited for undermining the banks of bays and causing erosion.
Hopes for a green crab bailout from the pending shortages of herring for lobster bait may be dimmed by a green crab parasite that is harmful to lobster. The Maine DMR has recognized that profitable or not, the green crab problem needs to be dealt with. The prospect for useful product may be an opportunity to dodge resorting to nuclear-esque options such as the fin fish pen pest management technique of dumping pesticides into the water with crossed fingers or churning up the bottom and filtering out the crabs with surf clam machinery.
Unlike the rapid upscaling of lobster internationally, it could take a while for an unknown crab to make it to white tablecloth profitability. It seems Mac crabcakes would deliver a little population control a lot sooner. Our Maine ancestors were folding lobsters into the garden long before serving them for dinner. With global warming driving the shot clock on a solution, the existing market for high value fish, crab and lobster processing waste fertilizer may be the place to start.