'It devours everything': the crab that hitched a ride to Spain | Stephen Burgen

Only the octopus is a match for the deadly pincers of a creature that has found its way from the US to the Ebro DeltaVoracious and almost without predators, the blue crab was first sighted in the Ebro Delta on Spain's Mediterranean coast in 2012, and since then the population has expanded exponentially, wiping out native species and forcing the fishing industry to adapt and find new markets.The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) is a native of the east coast of the United States. It probably found its way into the Mediterranean via ships' ballast tanks, says Carmen Barberá, a researcher at the Marine Research Centre at the University of Alicante, who is a specialist in invasive species. Continue reading...