Experts urge residents to eat creatures wreaking havoc on US coastline: 'There really aren't too many good things we can say about them'

What do Maine's chefs and fishermen have in common? An enemy — which they are combating through cuisine.

As reported by Noema, the Casco Bay and other parts of Maine's coast are suffering from the invasive green crab population boom in the warming waters. Over the last decade, these crabs have chewed through eelgrass beds, destabilized shellfish industries, and disrupted the marine food web. 

These crabs arrive in lobster traps, fill up oyster cages, and lurk beneath the rocks where harvesters used to look for clams.

"They love bivalves. They love soft-shell clams. They'll beat up on small lobsters, they beat up on native species, they mow down eel grass," Jason Goldstein, the research director at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, told Noema. "So there really aren't too many good things we can say about them, right?"

Chefs in Maine have responded by building menus around green crab broths, sauces, and stocks, leveraging the crab's strong flavor even though they don't offer much meat in a traditional shell. The business is still young, but growing.

This shift is more than a culinary trend. It's a smart ecological strategy. 

By harvesting invasive crabs for food, communities can reduce their population pressure in local ecosystems and give native species a better shot at recovery. At the same time, creating a green crab fishery supports local economies: crabbers, harvesters, chefs, and restaurants all benefit from the turn.

People are pushing harder to scale this movement. A handful of Maine crabbers now trap green crabs, harvest them at the right molting stage, and deliver them to restaurants.

Scientists are working to monitor populations, and chefs say green crab stock can make flavorful broth — a lower-cost alternative to lobster. 

It's a delicate balance. Harvest too little, and the crabs keep wreaking havoc; harvest too opportunistically, and the market might not support long-term ecological goals.

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This approach mirrors other successful efforts nationwide. For example, residents across the Pacific Northwest have learned to safely forage invasive Himalayan blackberries; Midwestern communities are fishing Asian carp to keep waterways clear; and Maryland encourages anglers to haul in as many invasive blue catfish as they can.

It seems turning invasive species into cuisine is a great strategy to combat them. With support from chefs and researchers, this green crab fishery could become a meaningful part of restoring balance along Maine's coast.

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