Clams KO'd by blue crabs, lupins decimated by mucilage

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 26 - Italian clams have been virtually exterminated by an invasion of blue crabs and now the native population of their replacement lupins has been decimated by mucilage, Confcooperative Fedagripesca said in an alert to ANSA Saturday.
    Real Italian clams, the key ingredient for one of the nation's favourite pasta dishes, have practically disappeared from the fish counters, it said.
    The blue crab has plundered the farms of the Po Delta.
    And now the sea ones, known as lupins that until now had been saved, are suffering because of the wave of mucilage that hit the entire Adriatic coastal strip this summer. The business, before the arrival of the blue crab and the mucilage, was worth 300 million euros, said the association.
    The large gelatinous masses in the summer months caused considerable difficulties for fishing by damaging the catching gear and now that the algae have settled on the seabed they are a threat to clams, mussels and cockles; species that move little and are dying due to anoxia and rising water temperatures.
    For these reasons, fishermen have carried out an additional stoppage and are asking for financial support for these days of their fishing ban.
    And if it is increasingly difficult to bring a plate of spaghetti with clams made in Italy to the table, there is a boom on the import front where Portuguese clams reign supreme.
    A survey by Fedagripesca recalls that at home and in the restaurant for 7 out of 8 Italians spaghetti with clams is among the favorite first courses of fish, which make them "justly celebrated".
    And an answer to repopulate the farms in Veneto and Emilia Romagna could come from Portugal.
    But it is not easy to restart this economy, where Italy was a leader in Europe: it is necessary to reclaim the waters from the crab, fence off the production areas and put the product back into the water to be farmed.
    "The problem is precisely this last one - explains Paolo Tiozzo, vice president of Confcooperative Fedagripesca - because a quantity of seed is needed, the estimated need is for billions of specimens of true clams, impossible to find and manage with the 'hatcheries' we have today". (ANSA).