An intriguing counterpoint to the blue catfish invasion of the Chesapeake Bay here. Efforts to control its population here by putting it on menus haven’t been too successful from what I know. But on the blue crabs in Venice, @Holden what do you know about this phenomenon?

Hey all! This phenomenon gets mentioned often among the host of environment ‘problems’ Venice faces – sea level rise, overtourism, depopulation… and invasive species. Blue crabs are the most noticable but certainly not the only ones who have made their way into the lagoon. On the ground (i.e. outside of the fancy restaurants, which are the ones I see reported in this story) there is still high resistence to using this species in cuisine, so at a first glance I would say that it resembles the catfish phenomenon Anand mentioned. Haute cuisine is a minor player in terms of blue crab biomass that gets harvested, far from a ‘solution’ for anyone who wants to eradicate it from the ecosystem. Venetians wouldn’t be so upset if they weren’t replacing the niche of the smaller green crab that traditionally is a popular food for lagoon residents.