Suggest indicting the crabs on charges of crossing an international border, with an option for clawbacks.
8
As a general rule, avoidance of aggressive crabs is a good path to follow.
But the question is, are they good eating?
Sounds so similar to the "killer bee" story, which originates from the hybridization of Italian honey bees in Brazil with North African honey bees, which are tougher and more aggressive than their European counterparts. Result: an unexpectedly aggressive strain of hybrid bees that have actually attacked and killed animals and become a danger to people. They have, since their origins in Brazil, spread to the Southern US.
These hybrid green crabs are another case of unexpected invasives threatening native species. Climate change has more dimensions than we can guess.
4
Eat them. Quite tasty w/ garlic & butter.
1
Build a wall and make the crabs pay for it.
20
How do they taste with melted butter?
2
Start a rumor they green crabs are aphrodisiac; demand would be so high from the far eastern market that the creatures would rapidly go onto the endangered species list.
20
They must be Republicans!
8
@Greg Kraus: It is worse than you think. They are Canadian and therefore a threat to the US national security. So President Trump should impose tariff on them.
5
Eat them, just like we do with Lionfish.
1
It sounds like the oceanic version of the Africanized honey bee.
Canadian lobster fishers on the Atlantic coast used to shun the Snow or Queen Crab until the Asian market began buying their catch.
We know so little about the planet.
Just another attempt to create a trade deficit. Tariffs are the only solution.
13
One reads in a linked article "that green crabs (Carcinus maenas), originally from Europe, reached U.S. shores in the mid-1800s after riding across the Atlantic in the ballast water on ships. Once here in North America, they travelled to Maine, where they have been present for more than a century. For example, they were first spotted in Casco Bay in 1900, and had reached Jonesport by 1951".
More than a century should have been enough time to contain their expansion, rather than crying now about the spilt milk of lost opportunities.
3
Only building a wall can stop this
11
And Canada will pay for it!
6
Just think what they say about us!
5
Wait until you see what we'll send if the Democrats don't win the House and Senate.
27
Are the edible? So lets just eat em up!
6
How come invasive species are never any good? I mean, you never hear of an invasive species that, say, improves an environment, or is really tasty to eat.
Even nature is depressing these days.
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@pjc
Lion fish is delicious. Some invasives do help in some ways -- why many were imported in the first place. The problem is often the unintended and unexpected consequences.
2
@pjc
Today's trash fish is tomorrow's expensive delicacy. In the old days, lobster was fed to prisoners because it couldn't be given away. Things change.
5
There’s a reason it wasn’t a popular dish is because the lobsters weren’t cooked and served the way they are today. My understanding is that they were ground (shells and all) into a gruel so noxious and foul that eventually laws were passed prohibiting it from being served more then twice a week. Beside prisoners it was also served to indentured servants as they worked to pay off their debts for little to no pay other then room and board leaving them with no way to buy their own food. I assure you no one was being feed lobster tails with melted butter.
2
Coast guard overreach has consequences...
5
I, for one, welcome our new Green Crab overlords.
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Finally, the comments section is having a refreshing & humourous tone not seen since around 18 months. What difference it makes!
31
Hit us with tariffs, this is what you get.
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@MACT
Wow, and that's coming from Connecticut! I guess that RE tax deduction limit has got us all mad! Good!
5
It's about time we peace-loving Americans put these violent, aggressive Canadians in the places.
I'm sending a message to Donald Trump right now!
Our step should be to break off diplomatic relations.
28
The only solution. Build a wall.
40
Send in the Cajun Navy ...
31
This could be good news for populations of blackfish and black sea bass!
1
humans eat lobsters and oysters so why can't the crabs? also we should be more concerned with why they are moving into new areas.
6
People's obsession with eating crabs, lobsters, and other sea-bugs baffles me. They are not "fancy." This is garbage food. They literally eat garbage.
Why not just eat maggots, cockroaches, and slugs, folks. Mmmmm-MMM!
1
@J c Escargots are delicious, as are chocolate-fried or just plain fried grasshoppers.
5
@gramphil
Anything fried is delicious. I could fry boogers and they would taste delicious. If you have to fry something (or dip it in butter) for it to be delicious, then the thing you are eating is probably not that "delicious."
1
In one way or another everything eats everything else.
10
Maybe gene splicing can alleviate
3
why can't we just leave them be. and why do humans feel the need to eat everything that is living!
1
@Jeff zinkievich
Actually, the animals I eat are all dead by the time they reach my plate.
18
Because it is only living things or things from living things that sustain us. Plants included. Are you eating something else we are not aware of?
9
@Jeff zinkievich
Carrion ain't that tasty......
4
Maybe the fierce Tautog (a crab eating wrasse fish) will take up residence in Maine to deal with this problem. We use green and Asian crabs (another invasive crustacean) here in NY/NJ as bait for Tautog.
9
They're green, they're mean, they're baaaad!
11
@Remember in November To quote Kermit the Frog, "It's not easy being green."
17
Can human eat the green crabs? If they are not poisonous, export them to China. The Chinese would like to eat anything from Maine...wait rebrand as from Nova Scotia, Canada, so that the exports can avoid 25% tariff.
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@A Canadian in Toronto
You're confusing the Chinese with the Japanese. Once sea urchins began to be "harvested" and sent to Japan, the ocean ecosystem in Maine began to sputter.
Yes! You can eat them. In Venice, they are a delicacy, and now there's a pilot program underway here in Georgetown to harvest them for eating. They have to be at the soft-shell stage, and that takes some expertise. But then they can be deep-fried and eaten like potato chips, or used as a base for other dishes. They've been a huge hit in nearby restaurants, and if all goes well, it's a new industry for local clammers--who also have the new hope of clam farms.
56
These "Canadian" crabs are actually from Europe as well. They just happened to hit Canada first:
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/profiles-profils/europeangreenc...
13
"Brian Beal, a professor at the University of Maine at Machias, said the crabs from Canada have no native predator in North America, and only cold winters keep their population in check." I don't get it — why would they come from Canada only now? Where along the Eastern Canadian coast did they come from, that cold weather previously wasn't as much a problem for them as in Maine? Global warming has generally been allowing more equatorial animals to move pole-ward, not the reverse.
12
@Jacob
It's a matter of ocean currents. They are like giant rivers within the ocean, transporting both warm and cold water. Warm ocean currents start veering away from the coast somewhere around the Carolinas, skirting the edge of Nova Scotia but leaving the gap along the northeastern US seaboard colder. So the water along the coast of Nova Scotia is several degrees warmer than along the coast of Maine slightly southwest of NS. That warm water also moderates air temperatures in those regions - the climate in St. John's, Newfoundland is much more moderate than many locations much further south. Microclimates are far more complex than just a question of latitude, and discussions of warming concern averages.
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@Tara Thank you.
1
Ship them down to RI, CT, NY, NJ, they make great blackfish bait. Hopefully. they'll be less expensive than the ones for sale now.
7
Oh, there they go again with their national health insurance, gun control, and steely-eyed protectionist cows!
These fiends (not friends!) to the north are out to destroy our culture, values and way of life. How do you think the blue crabs feel about this? Sad!
Please, President Trump, they have gone too far with the crabs! Let's invade, take over their tar sands and dump the excess into the Atlantic to kill all those mean Canadian crab criminals. MAGA!
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@Mike
Don't get carried away. Just hit them with tariffs. Start at 25%. If that doesn't work, escalate.
5
@Mike Actually the President did address this concern directly to the crabs. They laughed at him.
2
The following link describes the actual (international) origins of green crabs, the research done, and the efforts taken to combat them on the Canadian side of the border (unfortunately not discussed in your article):
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/profiles-profils/europeangreenc...
Rather than describe how these pests perform on treadmills (huh?), or repeatedly ascribe "nationality" to them, wouldn't it be better for an article in the NYT to focus a little more on how changing climate & a warming ocean is affecting this invasive species, and the regulatory and scientific work being done (or that could be done) to control them and overcome their adverse effects on fisheries everywhere?
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@David
Very nice comment - thanks for posting the article from F&O ... the article by ascribing nationality implies blame where it does not make sense - rather than identifying the real culprit - climate change ...
13
Excellent point. In addition, the article should explain how our government has failed to regulate the discharge of invasive species from ships. That's where the problem started and where the next invasions will come from. It's a subsidy of the shipping industry with huge economic and environmental costs to citizens.
Decades ago we might not have known better but now we know the risk and continuing to accept it is terrible public policy.
3
techies need to design a Roomba like drone sub with rudimentary AI for targeting the green crabs.
7
Perhaps our president can help by imposing a tariff on the crabs.
34
Build a crab wall!
16
Food paste? But can they be cooked and are they edible like other crabs?
6
@susan We're a small nonprofit dedicated to creating a culinary market for green crabs. We have a bunch of green crab recipes (softshell, caviar, stock, etc.) available at greencrab.org if you want to check them out!
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@Mary
nom,nom,nom. Great website shows off your org!
1
Can you eat them?
7
@Wesley Question of the moment! I bet they make a decent chowder.
4
@Wesley yes there is a restaurant in New haven that serves invasive species
5
@Cynthia
The place in New Haven not only serves invasives. They fish illegally in polluted water and ignore catch and size limits. Avoid!
Ya mess with NAFTA, we send in da trained crabs. Sleep with da fishes, ha! Next we have da armed huskies and then we work with the Ruskis on maybe exploding poutine. Bye-bye Bangor. Watch out, lobster suckers. You bin warned.
103
@Berner Or perhaps they could build a wall? But we should be polite and tell them we do not intend to pay for it.
13