What if the best weapon to attack the blue crab was… the fork? For the past ten years, this fearsome species has profoundly destabilized the ecosystems of the lagoons of the Mediterranean arc, which are already particularly fragile. Green crabs, fish, eels… This voracious crab with bluish claws devours everything, or almost, in its path, in Languedoc, Roussillon, Bouches-du-Rhône or Corsica. He even has a crush on mussels and oysters, grown in the ponds of the Gulf of Lion.
This villain alone, who is invading the lagoons at high speed, is harming local fishing. It is even capable, with its ultra-sharp pliers, of shredding the nets of fishermen. And be careful not to leave your finger there! “We no longer know what to do”, confided in 2022 to 20 minutes one of the last eel fishermen, on the pond of Canet (Pyrénées-Orientales). But the blue crab has a weak point, or rather a strong point, which could well cost him his throne of tyrant of the lagoons: his tender and tasty flesh.
Eating blue crab ‘is not in our culture’
Guillaume Marchessaux, marine biologist and researcher at the University of Palermo (Italy), is indeed working on an ingenious solution that could make it possible to regulate the species: that it becomes a dish like the others, or almost. Because today, it is rare to have blue crab on your plate. “It’s true, it’s not in our culture in the Mediterranean, confides the researcher to 20 minutes. However, fishing blue crab and marketing it for consumption, very locally, over a short period of time, could be a way of regulating the species and limiting its impact on biodiversity and fishing. Grilling blue crabs would also be a great boost for fishermen, who have been struggling for many years. “This would allow the blue crabs that the fishermen bring up to be valuable,” continues the researcher. This would allow them to somewhat compensate for the economic loss associated with this species. »
If in Tunisia or on the American Atlantic coasts, the blue crab is enormously fished to be eaten (Asia loves it, in particular), in France, this is not the case. The University of Palermo, in collaboration with the managers of French lagoons and coastal areas, has thus created a questionnaire, open to all (here), to try to find out if the French are ready to put blue crab on their menus. And the first responses are encouraging. “Apart from those who live near blue crab populations, few people know about it,” says the marine biologist. But they are ready to consume it. It is the discovery of a new product. It is also, for some, “citizen consumption”. “It would be ‘I eat blue crab, to contribute to the protection and control of the environment'”, summarizes Guillaume Marchessaux.
“Blue crab meat is delicate”
But its main asset is that it is “very good”, notes the researcher. “Its flesh is delicate, we are between brown crab and lobster. And then, it’s a big crab, there’s something to eat! In Bastia (Corsica), Jean-Michel Querci, head of the O Mà! Delicacies, already cooking the blue crab. He made a tasty soup, flambéed with rum from Martinique. “It was a fisherman friend who said to me: ‘Would you like to make a soup with blue crab?'” confides the cook. We tried, and it worked! And it’s very good! I’ll compare it to the spider crab.” And what’s more, it’s a big boost for fishermen. “Restaurant owners should also take it over,” continues the chef.
Hurry up. Because the blue crab reproduces exponentially. “In 2022, we reached new heights, confides Guillaume Marchessaux. That year, we had almost no fall or spring. It was hot, and populations exploded. Especially in Canet and Corsica. It is very worrying. So, to our forks.
To answer the blue crab questionnaire, it is here.