The US Fish and Wildlife Service is monitoring mitten crabs, a long time serious invasive species in the USA.
Mitten crabs brought into the USA illegally as a food delicacy from China are a real problem and a seriously invasive species. This has been going on for years, decades. Recently the US Fish and Wildlife Service set up a mitten crab watch website for people to report findings. So far a few have been reported in Delaware over the years. They are asking people to keep an eye out and report any they find. It is easy to sign up and use the service. Most mitten crabs reported have been found in New York, they are in Delaware and Maryland. They were first found on the east coast in Baltimore.
Identifying Mitten crabs is rather easy they don’t look like any native crabs here on the east coast. The Mitten Crab Watch has a plethora of information on these invasive crabs that have been an issue on the west coast since the 80’s. They have become more of an issue on the east coast in recent years, when they first showed up in 2005 in Baltimore, Maryland.
USFW … “Chinese mitten crabs are one of North America’s most invasive species and pose a serious threat to humans and the environment, the federal fish-and-wildlife agency said in a release. In high densities they can cause a number of problems. The crabs may out-compete native species for food and space; undermine flood levees and cause stream bank erosion; clog screens, pumps and water intake structures at fish collection facilities and power plants; and hurt commercial and recreational fishing industries by consuming bait and damaging fishing nets.”
“Seizures in the Cincinnati area were part of a national enforcement effort code-named “Hidden Mitten” led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which prevented the illegal and potentially harmful import into the United States of about 15,000 live Chinese mitten crabs, that agency said. The shipments originated in China and Hong Kong and were destined for residences and businesses in multiple U.S. states, although most were headed to New York, federal officials said. ”
Read the full article here.