Blue crabs, mucilages and worms; a summer of scourges on fishing in Italy

In the Sacca di Scardovari, where the clam farms were literally decimated last summer by the blue crab, the fishermen are stubbornly trying to start again. In recent days, Veneto Agricoltura, the Region's agency for supporting the primary sector, supplied the first batch of clam seed, 14 million specimens, which were put into the sea protected by special cages to protect them from the claws. «We want to sow to return to production after months of stopping, but it's hard», admits Paolo Mancin, president of the Polesine Fishermen's Cooperative Consortium. The blue crab does not let go of its grip on the Italian coasts, so much so that the Agriculture Legislative Decree provides for the establishment of an ad hoc extraordinary commissioner. At the Coldiretti assembly, the Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida had announced his appointment within this week, apparently the fishermen will have to wait longer. Yet the blue crab is not the only calamity affecting the national ...