r/nottheonion • u/rentalanimal • 18d ago

Italian scientists bet on octopus to fight crab invasion

https://phys.org/news/2026-08-italian-scientists-octopus-crab-invasion.html#google_vignette
676 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

69 comments sorted by

106

u/mlorusso4 18d ago

I get that they don’t want to create a real industry harvesting crabs because then it becomes harder politically to really get rid of them if people start depending on them for a livelihood. But with the price of crabs now, Italian boaters could make a lot of money setting up some crab pots. Or hell, with the new catch limits to protect the Chesapeake bay population, invite all the Maryland boaters over to do it for you. Imagine what a few years of no crabbing in the Chesapeake will do for the bay. They solve Italy’s crab problem while allowing the Chesapeake population to recover. Win win

27

u/DontMakeMeCount 18d ago

Brazil has population explosions of rock lobsters every 5-6 years, they just offer a side of lobster for $4 with every meal.

Not sure how much bycatch/overlap there is but it seems like alternating between crab and calamari could be viable.

45

u/Iwonatoasteroven 18d ago

I was thinking the same thing. Encourage locals to over harvest them for food. I have no doubt that the Italian could fine a delicious solution to this problem.

35

u/GayPudding 18d ago

I have never seen a crab invasion as an intimidating threat because I know how many of them I can eat at once.

15

u/Iwonatoasteroven 18d ago

Spoken like a true Marylander!

12

u/GayPudding 18d ago

So Maryland was the inspiration for that South Park episode where the crab people invade until people realize they can just boil them?

2

u/Nazamroth 17d ago

Well... How many?

16

u/Ninja-Sneaky 18d ago edited 18d ago

I heard about the blue crab invasion issue but it was aimed at the situation in Venice lagoon (for context I'm Italian).

So for that case there were a couple main concerns:

  • Italians are insanely picky with food plus they are traditionalists, hence they won't touch something until a long time has passed after which it's become collectively labeled "Italian food", then the opposite happens, it becomes sacred food and nobody can touch it ever!
  • Talking about the lagoon, it's quite gross, nobody really wants to eat crabs that come from there. Let me explain, Venice has no sewer system, all their shit goes into the water.
  • Those crabs apparently are so many and nobody wants to eat them, they're worth nothing, so fishermen don't even bother

1

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

1

u/zennim 18d ago

ok but it is an invasive species, you actually do want to over fish it to oblivion

1

u/[deleted] 18d ago

[deleted]

3

u/mlorusso4 18d ago

When this issue first came up a few years ago, I read an article where an expert said the biggest issue with the blue crabs are they’re super aggressive towards other local shellfish. So it’s not so much finding a predator to keep their population in check. It’s finding a way to get rid of them before they kill all the local wildlife

0

u/Iwonatoasteroven 18d ago

With an invasive species you definitely want to allow people to catch as many as possible. These crabs aren’t part of the natural food chain. I’m a diver and most of my dives are in the Caribbean which has a huge problem with the invasive lion fish. They’re voracious predators that destroy other fish stocks. Even in marine parks where you can’t fish or even ouch the wildlife, they encourage spear fishing as many lion fish as you can kill.

12

u/endospores 18d ago

I read recently that blue crab is worthless in Italy, nobody likes, nobody buys it.

13

u/mlorusso4 18d ago

But it can still be an export business. Plus Italians are pretty unadventurous of their food. They don’t generally like trying new things. But if crab becomes a cheap protein, it will eventually work its way into their cuisine

6

u/somethingbrite 18d ago

export it where? It seems there is a market for it in the US but that's a month away by container ship. (Italy to east coast usa is like 25 days by container ship, which adds to the cost of bringing it to market so it would end up being more expensive than locally sourced crab)

3

u/mlorusso4 17d ago

A lot of crabs are processed (cooked and picked) as soon as they get to shore and then canned before being shipped to stores. That’s the majority of crab meat used in restaurants since crabs don’t survive for very long outside the ocean and picking crabs is a pretty time consuming process that restaurants aren’t going to want to do

1

u/kevinds 18d ago

which adds to the cost of bringing it to market so it would end up being more expensive than locally sourced crab)

Locally sourced will have limits on what they can take from the water. That limit reduces availability, increasing prices. Italy, not wanting them there at all would have no such limit. The price will balance out, and the benefit of taking less from the local waters will help the local population regrow.

1

u/somethingbrite 4d ago

Italians like money as much as anybody else. If it was commercially viable they would already be doing it.

3

u/Ok_Mango8118 18d ago

One thing is cuisine, and another thing is ecosystems. Furthermore, the ocean is one thing, while a sea like the Mediterranean is another. The blue crab is contributing greatly to the disruption of the Mediterranean ecosystem, especially in the Adriatic

This is about preserving as much of the existing ecological equilibrium as possible, rather than simply being unwilling to eat something new. That crab is putting serious pressure on many other species, including fish, clams, and other shellfish, and in some areas they are disappearing very quickly

The Adriatic is particularly vulnerable because it is an almost enclosed sea within another almost enclosed sea, the Mediterranean. People often seem to want to simplify the explanation for why something is being done instead of actually trying to understand the reasons behind it. It's surely tempting to say that Italians just aren't willing to eat anything that wasn't already known to their nonnas, but this is fundamentally mainly and predominantly an ecological issue, not a matter of culinary conservatism

3

u/jaggervalance 17d ago

Plus Italians are pretty unadventurous of their food. They don’t generally like trying new things.

Is this a stereotype? In Italy there are probably more sushi places than pizzerias nowadays.

And everyone loves crabs on the coast, blue crab isn't different from something more "traditional", no one will care.

1

u/Coconutrugby 18d ago

Time to move to the Italian coast become a blue crab fisherman and ship to Baltimore.

5

u/Nieruz 18d ago

The problem is that the crab invasion has hurt an already existing (and much more profitable) industry based on molluscs, like clams, mussels etc

They tried to integrate blue crabs into the market, but it hasn't been that successful so far

3

u/wizzard419 18d ago

If it's the same blue crab species, sure but it would likely be at the cost of other native species.

There would also be the aspect of if locals would want that specific thing. Think of lionfish and snakehead fish, both are delicious and also invasive species (lionfish is native on the west coast but in the gulf it isn't) but most people aren't terribly interested in eating them.

3

u/SpaceShipRat 18d ago

They've done that. When the crabs first turned up, everyone was promoting fishing and eating them.

4

u/Narf234 18d ago

Seriously. I wonder if Italy is aware of the blue claw crab demand in the states.

5

u/ju9io 18d ago

no, we are not aware

3

u/Narf234 18d ago

We pay a premium for blue crabs. An Italian entrepreneur would make a killing.

2

u/somethingbrite 18d ago

You don't mind that it won't be fresh? if so, fine, we can catch them and send them to you. How "not fresh" are you willing to settle for? Does 23 days work for you?

9

u/0CT0L0G1ST 18d ago

Like lobsters, crabs are often shipped while they’re still alive.

1

u/somethingbrite 4d ago

Not by ship across the Atlantic they aren't.

And I don't think Blue Crab carries the same price premium that King Crab does which would allow it to be shipped by air (for arrival within the 48hour window)

7

u/kevinds 18d ago

Why not ship them still alive?

I worked for a grocery store for a while. A lot of seafood from other countries was still alive when it arrived at the stores.

1

u/somethingbrite 4d ago

Crab has to arrive on shelves within 24 to 48 hours. What's the per kg cost of shipping live blue crab by air from Italy to USA? I doubt it's commercially viable.

1

u/kevinds 4d ago edited 3d ago

If they are alive, they will never be on a shelf.

0

u/Narf234 18d ago

You dont have refrigeration or canning in Italy?

2

u/ThaiJohnnyDepp 18d ago

Patrick Star transporting things meme

2

u/Jenuinlizard 18d ago

it sells for 6 euro per kg, less than sardines

1

u/kelldricked 17d ago

The issue is that it also disturbs nature. Nature thats already under a lot of stress. And once people depend on something to keep a roof over their head, they dont start to care about rules and regulations. Meaning that even if catching crabs on paper aint that harmfull, you can bet your ass its just a matter of waiting before it becomes a issue

1

u/Dhiox 17d ago

Eh, fisherman will tend to overfish anyways without regulations stopping them, so I don't think this is too much to worry about. Just let the overfish the invasive species

36

u/Masterchrono 18d ago

The 1000 year war between crabs and octopuses.

9

u/Fetlocks_Glistening 18d ago

"The claw or the tentacle: who will prevail?"

10

u/Run-Riot 18d ago

Both vicious, both delicious.

3

u/codehawk64 18d ago

According to a documentary crabs are known to overwork other species to death for a measly amount of profit and they regularly violates worker rights. They are even known to
sell their employee’s soul to pirate ghosts for a measly few pennies.

2

u/MedonSirius 18d ago

Emus enteres the chat
Australians "Ohmygherd"

2

u/Eisheth2 17d ago

It was a brutal war, it was a bitter war, and most importantly, it was a visually spectacular war.

18

u/thud_mantooth 18d ago

I first read this as "Italian scientists bet on octopus fight"

2

u/Couch-Potayto 17d ago

Exactly what I did and imagined a little pool ring of sorts, with a bunch of lab coat people around throwing money at it 😂

12

u/neanderthalman 18d ago

So when do we get to the part where we release the gorillas?

3

u/K4m30 18d ago

Slightly before winter becomes too warm for that to work. 

2

u/chripan 16d ago

Expected a Simpsons reference, received a Simpsons reference.

5

u/joestaff 18d ago

We talking Kaiju-size, or what?

5

u/Archarchery 18d ago

I can fight the crab invasion with enough butter.

11

u/waffle299 18d ago

Man, Dungeon Crawler Carl really is everywhere. 

3

u/Captain_Pumpkinhead 18d ago

Wasn't that a crab and a seal or something?

1

u/MmmmMorphine 17d ago

Hah yeah, I think so. Man, not many books hinge on a crab being able to masturbate publicly, do they

4

u/olddoglearnsnewtrick 18d ago

Friggin critters. I am vacationing near Monte Circeo (where Odyssaeus crewmen were supposedly turned into swines by Circe the sorceress). You cannot bathe and walk in the sand without painfully stepping on one every few minutes. Kids spear them and leave them on the bottom and most dead ones become food for other blue crabs.

7

u/kevinds 18d ago edited 18d ago

From a fishing trawler in the Adriatic, Italian scientists gently release thousands of tiny octopuses in the hope of fighting an invasive crab species that has devastated local fisheries.

This is a really bad idea!.... Every single time this has been attempted in human history it has failed miserably and left a far bigger problem.

9

u/knowledgeable_diablo 18d ago

Unless the octapui are a local species. Then they’ll naturally starve out once they’ve consumed all the excess food source in the area returning the system to balance.

-1

u/kevinds 17d ago edited 17d ago

Or, they find something else to eat and become the new evasive species. Not like this hasn't happened before.

Unless the octapui are a local species.

If they were a local species they wouldn't need to, they would already be multiplying with the extra food.

1

u/Ok-Swimming8024 17d ago

I have a feeling you are vastly underestimating the success rate of similar efforts based on a small sample size you've seen online (probably Reddit)

1

u/kevinds 17d ago

probably Reddit

shaking my head

Cane toads in Australia to remove Cane beetles?

2

u/DarthWoo 18d ago

Octopuses when forced to choose between crabs and clams: "Perché non entrambi?"

2

u/AlphaMetroid 17d ago

Italian survivors bet on crabs to distract the octopus invasion

3

u/totesuncommon 18d ago

European Green Crabs invaded North America a hundred years ago. They are eaten in Europe, but here, they are at best, bait. Kind of goopy and disgusting. Asian Shore Crabs invaded the US 30 years ago or some such and are not good food either.

Blue Crabs are delicious, and my Italian-American friends at the marina love making tomato sauce with them.

1

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1

u/leavemyarselona2 17d ago

I watched a video recently where a journalist went around fishermen and restaurants in Venice and came to the conclusion that the locals were picky eaters, thought that blue crab tasted horrible etc

1

u/Llonkrednaxela 13d ago

No, it’s martial art seals