The region wants to use it as aquaculture feed
The blue crab is doing damage not only in the northern Adriatic but also in an important area of the Tyrrhenian Sea. To be precise in Tuscany, where the non-native species has been sighted in the Orbetello lagoon, as well as further north, near the mouth of the Arno, in Vada, Marina di Pisa and on the island of Elba.
The problem was tackled by the Tuscany Region, whose Agriculture Councilor Stefania Saccardi took up the fishermen's complaints and spoke with Agriculture Undersecretary Patrizio Giacomo La Pietra, who, in turn, is planning a meeting with the fishermen.. The councilorship's proposal is now to request funds from the national government, in order to use the blue crab as feed for aquaculture.
Since the blue crab feeds mainly on fry and juveniles, "on this we will also make a request for economic intervention to the government to make up for the damage to the fisheries", says Saccardi, who is also considering giving "the task to a university to study the phenomenon.
In the meantime, on a national scale, the alarm on the spread of the crustacean has been raised by Coldiretti, which reports "very serious damage to mussel and clam farms and to the entire ecosystem, which put at risk the survival of 3 thousand family businesses in the delta del Po with the threat that is spreading dangerously to other territories".
In a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, the president of Coldiretti Ettore Prandini called for urgent intervention with measures to support the affected businesses.
Reporting its presence "on all the shores of the Adriatic and in the Tyrrhenian", Coldiretti underlines that the blue crab "is only the latest example of an alien species that has invaded the Italian countryside and seas as a result of climate change, causing over a billion environmental, landscape and economic damage".
Recalling similar scenarios that occurred to Italian agriculture with the Xylella bacterium, Drosophila suzukii, a killer gnat that threatens fruit, as well as the Asian bug, Coldiretti concludes by putting climate change "under accusation", together with the "globalization of trade" and to the "overly permissive European Union control system".
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Rome, RM, Italy, 07/31/2023 10:59
EFA News - European Food Agency
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