In the shallow waters of the Scardovari lagoon, fishermen catch clams for Italy’s beloved spaghetti alle vongole, alongside mussels and oysters. But an invader risks putting them out of business.
The blue crab, native to the North American Atlantic coast, has been present across the Mediterranean for years but in recent months has become a serious problem on Italy’s northeastern coast.
“The blue crabs are eating everything. This stretch of lagoon is becoming a desert,” said Gianluca Travaglia, a 52-year-old farmer of mussels and clams.
He is the third generation of his family to have a boat on the “Sacca degli Scardovari”, an economically important part of the delta where the Po River reaches the Adriatic Sea.
“Every day we fish more of them… I don’t know what to do,” Travaglia told AFP as he guided his motorboat across the water.
His fellow farmers had the same issue, he added.
“They can’t even lower their nets anymore because the crabs swim into the nets and break them.”
