This Thursday, April 21, it is a real council of war against the blue crab which was held in the common house of the traditional huts of fishermen of Canet-en-Roussillon (Pyrénées-Orientales).
All the authorities and all the actors of the coast now threatened, were gathered around Didier Codorniou president of the Parliament of the sea of Occitanie to detail the strategy.
It is a question of fighting against the invader who has arrived from North America and who has settled as a predatory squatter in the pond of Canet to the point of jeopardizing the ecological balance of this protected lagoon.
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Professional fishermen caught more than 5 tons of these blue-clawed crabs during the summer of 2021. But this is still insufficient.
They will continue the fight to drastically reduce the population that knows no predator.
The Banyuls-sur-Mer observatory and the University of Perpignan are called upon to carry out research on the development of the population of blue crabs specifically in this lagoon.
It is a question of establishing its level of physiological tolerance, of drawing up an inventory of the parasites and of listing its points of vulnerability.
An economic and ecological problem
“This Thursday we recovered around twenty kilos of crabs in each bag of nets, but last week it was almost 100 kg.
Fishermen are equipped with sixty new, thicker nets to ensure a better catch rate.
And we will have to understand why this same blue crab which thrives in the pond of Canet and which jeopardizes the ecological balance of the lagoon, has practically disappeared from the pond of La Palme located only a few kilometers away", indicates Bernard Pérez the president of the Occitania fishing committee.
“This blue crab poses a serious ecological but also economic problem since fishermen in the sector can no longer work normally, especially with eels.
Along with scientific research, we are looking for solutions to enhance this blue crab.
Two companies are working on this project because the meat of this crab is very thin.
But it still remains unknown.
A commercial sector is to be developed", adds Didier Codorniou, vice-president of the Occitanie region, the main operator of the war effort with already 122,500 euros invested for this first year of monitoring and action, including 40 000 euros for tactical capture weapons: the new nets.
In the field, it seems that the idea of shelling the blue crab is gaining ground.
The blue pliers are appearing on the stalls of local markets like in Barcarès or at fishmongers like in Montpellier.