YANGCHENG LAKE, China: The last three years have been the toughest for Xie Dandan and her family during more than a decade cultivating one of China’s most esteemed culinary delicacies, the “hairy crab”, named for its furry claws.
“From 2022, it feels like the weather has been getting worse every year,” said the 34-year-old, standing amid tanks filled with the crabs, coveted for their sweet flesh and golden roe, while she wrapped some in straw to prepare them for customers.
“We’ve come to mentally prepare for these losses.”
Xie is among the farmers at Yangcheng Lake in the eastern province of Jiangsu, being forced to devise new ways to keep the crustaceans alive as unusually high temperatures and longer-than-expected summers have disrupted breeding cycles since 2022.
The Chinese mitten crabs, as they are also known, can sell for hundreds of dollars when exported in sets of four to countries such as Singapore and Japan.
“Those who work in agriculture are at the mercy of the sky,” said Xie, whose community reeled last year from losses caused by the strongest typhoon to hit the east coast since 1949, ripping out nets and shutting down oxygenation systems.
Higher temperatures than usual spell a triple threat for the crabs by slowing their growth, reducing the amount of oxygen in the water and boosting the growth of bacteria, said Kenneth Leung, a marine environment expert at the City University of Hong Kong.
Hopes for a bumper harvest this year were crushed by summer temperatures around the lake in Suzhou city famed for some of the tastiest crabs, which stayed above 30 degrees Celsius until late October, delaying their maturity.
Source: CNA
