The March Of The Swimming Blue Crabs Continues,

they taste wonderful,

but they are becoming an ever increasing pest where they are not welcome, in the Mediterranean, for the last three years, the Canet-en-Roussillon lagoon, in southern France, has been under invasion from a blue crab which devours almost everything in its path, so far the only way to stop them, is to eat them, and we can tell you from the numbers we ate in Thailand they are delicious!

how they look when cooked, from one of our days in Thailand, on a serious note since the invasion began in 2020, two friends have meticulously noted down the number of blue crabs they have caught, "We started seeing them in 2017, it's been five or six years since they've been here," explains Jean-Claude Pons, “We used to see one or two, then ten, and then it was kilos every day." Pons has been an eel fisherman for more than 35 years, today, he’s totally overwhelmed by the proliferation of this crustacean, eels, fish, algae...the blue crab devours everything in its path, when it settles somewhere, it threatens local biodiversity, especially as this swimming crab moves quickly and can travel 15 kilometres a day, as a result, Yves Rougé and Jean-Claude Pons' eel fishing business has been at a standstill for two years, “Invasive species are present in many places, but in Canet, the conditions are perfect for it to remain and proliferate," says Yves Desdevises, director of the Banyuls-sur-Mer oceanological observatory, which is responsible for studying the biology of the species, from Thailand to the Mediterranean, I wonder how they got there? of course, they swam! For the full story have a look here.