In an attempt to combat the blue crab invasion, which has caused an estimated €200 million in damage to the fishing industry, Italian researchers are raising and releasing thousands of octopuses into the Adriatic Sea in the hope that they will become natural predators of the crabs.
According to Euronews, researchers are carefully releasing thousands of tiny octopuses in the hope that they will help fight the invasive crab species that has devastated local fisheries.
“I chose the octopus because, in the wild, it is a formidable predator of crustaceans,” said Antonio Casalini, one of the researchers.
Blue crabs, originally from the Atlantic coast of North America, arrived in the Mediterranean several decades ago, most likely carried in the ballast water of ships.
In 2023, the blue crab population exploded in the Po Delta, severely affecting fishing. Warming waters, favored by climate change, allow crabs to be active and reproduce almost all year round.
Authorities have sought solutions to combat the invasion, including exporting the crabs to the US, where they are considered a delicacy.
The agricultural and fishing organization Coldiretti estimates the damage at around 200 million euros across Italy, with the northern Veneto region also badly affected.
About the “Octo-Blu” project
That’s why a team from the University of Bologna hopes that by raising and releasing octopuses into the sea, they could limit the crab population. Launched last year and funded by the Emilia-Romagna region, the ‘Octo-Blu’ project aims to increase the number of octopuses to counter the spread of the hard-shelled invaders.
The team is raising baby octopuses in pools of white water in a laboratory in the port city of Cesenatico. When ready, the tiny invertebrates are scooped out by the thousands and put into a large plastic bag, then transported out to sea, sometimes with the help of Sanulli’s blue fishing boat.
The hatchlings are then released near underwater reefs, where the team has placed artificial shelters made of cement and clay to facilitate their development.
About 80,000 baby octopuses have been released since June, and researchers want to double that number by the end of August in the hope that some of them will reach adulthood.
“The idea is to set up a small community near the shore so that it can help fight the spread of the blue crab,” says Casalini, aquaculture technician.
But the project also has limits: Octopuses don’t typically live in the waters where crabs cause the most damage, and other experts believe sea bass or eels might be more effective predators. However, researchers hope the project will help limit the population of blue crabs, which reproduce extremely quickly.
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