Catherine Rusoff
Just a few days ago, invasive Joro spiders sent New Yorkers into a frenzy amid news that the large arachnids that can fly on the winds are heading to the Big Apple. Now, there’s another creature causing a stir that has “furry” gloves for claws and is known for terrorizing fishermen as it ravages the coastline.
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation said last week that it found mitten crabs in the state’s Nissequogue River over the winter, news that they said “was anything but crab.” More recently, according to the agency, the creatures were found in the Hudson River and Long Island Sound.
“These crabs move between brackish and marine waters and have the potential to disrupt local ecosystems by competing with native marine life,” the department said in its June 5 Facebook post.
Chinese mitten crabs are an invasive species originating in East Asia. The Smithsonian says crabs established for the first time an invasive population in San Francisco Bay in the 1980s, but it took decades for them to reach the opposite coast.
According to New York Invasive Species Informationthese crustaceans were first documented in the eastern U.S. Chesapeake Bay in 2006, at the mouth of Maryland Patapsco River. One of the crabs was first spotted in New York in May 2007, when it was found in a commercial crab pot in the Hudson River.
Frank Bründel Alliance/image via Getty Images
It’s not yet fully known what kind of impact they will have on New York, but so far, their impacts on Europe and San Francisco have been negative ecologically and economically, says the DEC. The small, hard-shelled animals have been known to steal fishing bait and damage fishing gear, block the cooling systems of power stations and even amplify the risk of flooding by burrowing into banks, making them unstable and eroded.
To identify them, the agency says to look for “furry” claws that resemble gloves on adult crabs. Younger crabs may not have fuzzy claws and it is recommended to look for a notch in the carapace, or shell, between the eyes and the four small spines on each side.
But what do you do if you happen to see one?
“Don’t throw it back alive!” the Smithsonian says.
New York officials say if a mitten crab is seen, it should be immediately removed from the environment and frozen. They also encourage anyone who finds one to take photos, note where it was found and report it to the Department of Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health.
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