Local crabbers’ harvest bonanza
Print Edition
HURRY! The annual season for enjoying hairy crabs is nearing its end.
Eating this freshwater crustacean has become a late-autumn ritual for most Shanghai households. The season ends at the end of November.
Although the famed Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs are always highly prized, crabs grown in Songjiang are rising in number and popularity.
Last month, local farmers spread their nets and harvested the first of this autumn’s crop of crabs.
“Due to heavier-than-usual summer rain and the warm weather in early autumn, the production of the crabs in China this year decreased, but Songjiang crabs weren’t affected,” said Lang Yuelin, chairman of the Yuyue Aquatic Association, a major hairy crab breeder in Songjiang.
Huangpu River crab production is forecast to hit 75,000 kilograms this year, with sales of 15 million yuan (US$2.2 million). Of that harvest, about 40,000 kilograms go to export markets.
With its green back, white belly, golden pincers and yellow hair, the Huangpu River crab features tender meat and rich roe that has a slight naturally sweet flavor.
“The water quality and ecological environment create good living conditions for the crabs,” said Wang Youcheng, deputy director of the Shanghai River Crabs Association.
Before water from a protection zone of the Huangpu River is channeled into the crab grounds, it is purified twice to lower its content of nitrogen and phosphorus.
Different types of water grasses planted in the crab ponds create a three-tier plant structure that helps purify the environment and provide food for aquatic creatures. In addition, oxygen is added to the water periodically to imitate natural tidal changes.
The young crabs feed on freshwater snails. As they mature, fish are added to their daily diet, supplemented sometimes with corn.
Two years ago, Professor Chen Liqiao from East China Normal University invented a new type of feed that is tailor-made for hairy crabs. In it, vegetable protein replaces animal protein.
The Huangpu River hairy crab, once popular in Shanghai, fell into decline in the 1980s because of pollution. Over the years, aquaculture experts have introduced new, eco-friendly cultivation techniques to re-breed the species in Songjiang.
Experts from the Shanghai Ocean University and the Shanghai Aquatic Products Research Center chose the Jianghai 21 species as the preferred breeder. After 12 years and seven generations, the species regained the long legs and sharp frontal teeth exhibited by traditional Yangtze River crab 20 years ago.
For Songjiang, breeding hairy crab is a lucrative business today. Along the southern banks of the Huangpu River, crab ponds now cover 153 hectares.
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