DUXBURY, MASS. (WHDH) - Skip Bennett makes a living farming clams and oysters in Duxbury Bay.
“We found little windows like in July, where the oysters are growing so fast,” said Bennett, Island Creek Founder.
Growing fast is key because lurking at the bottom of the bay is an army of small green crabs hunting for shellfish.
European Green Crabs are considered one of the “world’s most invasive species.”
“They are very destructive for being so small,” said Bennett.
And these small creatures are a big problem for Bennett because they feed off of soft shell clams and oysters.
“They’re like potato chips and they’re just popping those things open no problem,” said Bennett.
Researchers at Manomet Conservation Sciences have been tracking Green Crabs for years.
“They do have an impact, a negative impact on a lot of coastal habitats,” said Marissa McMahan, Senior Director of Fisheries at Manomet Conservation Sciences. “The biggest impact we have seen though is on the soft shell clam fishery. They have just wiped out softshell clams and a lot of various areas.”
That impact has led some North Shore fishing communities to try something new!
They are offering 40 cents for every pound of Green Crabs caught, hoping to encourage people to get the crabs out of the water.
So far, over 100,000 pounds of crab have been trapped.
“If we have something that is super abundant in nature, we have incentive to try to harvest it,” said McMahan. “I think we could think of a lot of different ways to use it.”
One of those ways is to cook them.
“It was a great way to introduce crab flavor I mean, who doesn’t like crab,” said Greg Reeves, Executive Chef at Althea.
At Althea in Cambridge, Green Crabs are baked, boiled, and turned into broth.
“They have great, really strong pungent in a good way crab flavors so really brings it out,” said Reeves. “You can use them for stocks, soups, and sauces. They’re really delicious and have a great cool profound flavor.”
Reeves, who studied environmental science in college, says adding Green Crab to the menu was an easy decision.
“You can get them for half the cost quarter of a cost of anything, plus, the environmental impact that you’re going to have by using them more and more is really great,” said Reeves. “It’s in our environment now and it’s probably not going to be leaving for a long time. So, instead of looking at it as a problem, let’s look at it as a solution and a great resource.”
Althea will be one of a few local restaurants, fish markets, and harvesters participating in Green Crab week. The event in June aims to raise awareness about the crab and ways to cook it.
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