Relax!  This is not going to be some dissertation on the problems with those little parasites that like to inhabit the hairy regions of a human’s body.

But a dissertation will follow the news…

Italy is sending in eight-armed reinforcements against a crab that won’t quit. In the Adriatic, scientists have released about 130,000 lab-bred baby octopuses in a bid to curb exploding numbers of Atlantic blue crabs that are wrecking fishing gear and wiping out lucrative clam and mussel beds—damage that farm group Coldiretti pegs at more than $230 million so far, the Telegraph reports. The “Octo-Blu” project, led by Bologna University and the Emilia-Romagna regional government, is banking on a simple food-chain fix: once grown, each octopus could devour up to four crabs a day.

The plan is far from a sure thing. The tiny “paralarvae” face a mortality rate of more than 99%, though researchers have sunk artificial dens to boost their odds. Still, even a single crab eaten can matter, notes project scientist Oliviero Mordenti, who points out that one female crab can produce up to 2 million eggs. Blue crabs have already forced some aquaculture businesses to shut and have been found 100 miles up the Po River, suggesting they’re spreading to avoid overcrowding, which leads to cannibalism.

“We chose the octopus because, in the wild, it is a formidable predator of crustaceans,” says Antonio Casalini, a University of Bologna aquaculture expert. “We are not introducing a new species but working on strengthening the population of a native species already naturally present in the Adriatic,” Casalini says, per Scientific American. Italy is also pushing a culinary counterattack, stocking blue crab in shops and on menus, but diners so far haven’t been able to eat their way out of the problem.

Now for my thoughts….

First maybe if they would stop killing thousands of octopus daily to satisfy their ‘culinary delights’ they might not be have such a problem.

Second, they eat urchins, snails, offal meat and such but not crabs…..that seems crazy….ask anyone down here on the Gulf Coast and they will tell you that blue crab is some of the best crab meat around.

Third, if they cannot bring themselves to eat the crab then fishermen could make a killing catching them and sending them to the Southern states…..Southerns will gladly eat them if a smile….and it would drive the price of local crabs down….another positive side effect.  The problem here is that it could damage local crab industry and put a strain on it.

Fourth someone needs to start a new Italian tradition with the crabs….try them you’ll like them….after all monk fish was not eaten in the past and look at the popularity today.

After I wrote this draft on Monday more to this saga has been reported…..it looks like they will try #3 on my list….

Italian fishermen for two years incinerated most of the invasive Atlantic blue crabs caught in the Po River Delta south of Venice. Few Italians had an appetite for the alien predator blamed for decimating their prized Manila clams.

While experiments in containment continue, including the release of tens of thousands of octopus predators, the industry’s response has been shifting to find new markets for the crustaceans. The strategy is already salvaging the livelihood of some fishermen and, some hope, may even rehabilitate the much-maligned crab’s image in Italy.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/italians-enter-uneasy-truce-invasive-040730509.html

May I suggest exporting them to the UK they seem to be fish-centric and they might enjoy the crab meat.

That does it for me for this week…..I hope has a great weekend….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”