The invasion of European waterways by the Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) is the focus of a major artistic work showing in Belgium’s leading art festival this year.
Assembled by Belgian research and design collective Rotor, “What’s Eating the Chinese Mitten Crab” will feature at two prestigious art exhibitions this summer: The Bruges Triennial and the related Beaufort festival in Zeebrugge.
“In China, this crab is considered a delicacy, but in Europe the creature is colonizing the waterways and upsetting the local natural equilibrium,” Lionel Devlieger, founder of Rotor, told SeafoodSource. “As a response to this disruption, scientists are looking for ways to destroy this crab population and are also researching forms of coexistence with native animal species.”
The crabs are thought to have arrived in Europe early in the 20th century in larvae form in the ballast water of ships sailing from Shanghai to Germany. Mitten crabs have since spread over most parts of the North Sea, Baltic Sea, and Atlantic coast, and the adjacent inland territories.
Such has been the species’ spread – and its impact on local ecologies – that the mitten crab was put on the European Union’s 2016 Invasive Alien Species list.
“Many countries were against this measure, as it imposes active ‘managing’ measures from the member states,” Devlieger said.
Holland objected because the crab has been replacing dwindling eel stocks on which some of its fishermen had depended for centuries. Hence, Holland is the only E.U. country with the permission (inside Dutch territory) to catch, transport, and sell mitten crabs for consumption.
“These are mostly either sold alive to Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands, or exported illegally to other E.U. countries, or to China and Hong Kong,” Devlieger said.
As part of its exhibition the Rotor artistic collective has installed a ‘natural history’ observatory while a pop-up URB SEA café on the beach in Zeebrugge will feature tasting sessions with invasive species including mitten crab on the menu, combined with roundtable discussions with researchers and experts.
Photo courtesy of VECTORS Project/European Union
