MARYLAND- Chesapeake Blue Crabs, you may be used to seeing them in Maryland, but recently one was spotted on the shores of Ireland, leaving people wondering how it got there.
“To me it’s telling me that there are more crabs then there really should be, so they are going other places,” Bob Whalpes, President of Dorcester County Seafood Heritage Association, said.
The Blue Crab Program Manager for Maryland said blue crabs are invasive to Ireland.
She added the blue crab probably did not swim across the Atlantic Ocean because they don’t make that type of migration.
“Blue crabs have already invaded the Mediterranean sea, and the coast of Spain, so it most likely came from that area or it could’ve come from the aquarium trade, folks releasing it,” Genine McClair, the Blue Crab Program Manager for Maryland, said.
While it is uncertain how the blue crab got there, I am told blue crabs in Ireland could impact the ecosystem.
Essentially, there’s an opportunity for them reproduce.
“As their population grows, they’re eating the food that these other crabs would be eating, so they can out-compete them in that regard and also take over their habitat,” McClair said.
I am also told that they could impact the commercial watermen, they might lose the ability to catch the species they normally catch.
Also, they might not make as much money because they cant harvest as much as they did the past.
“It is not having enough of the species they are used to harvesting and also trying to get the people they sell to to become comfortable with this new invasive species,” McClair said.
The Link LonkMarch 25, 2021 at 03:27AM
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Blue crab spotted on the shores of Ireland, could impact ecosystem and watermen - 47abc - WMDT
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