Green Crabs and Oysters: Virtual Panel

Written By Mary Parks
 

Green crabs can be a big problem for oysters and oyster farmers: preying on juvenile oysters and destroying oyster habitat. However, some people are exploring how the green crab fishery and oyster industry could work together.


This virtual panel hosted as part of Green Crab Week explored green crab’s impact on farmed and wild oysters and innovative collaboration between farmers and crabbers.

Moderated by Patrick McMurray: GreenCrab.org Board Member, Oyster Master Guild Co-Founder, and the World’s Fastest Oyster Shucker.

Panelists:

Thumbnail photo by Patrick McMurray of green crabs & oysters at Flex Mussels

 

Learn More About Each Participant:

Patrick McMurray

Patrick McMurray also known as Shucker Paddy is a GreenCrab.org Board Member, restauranteur, Oyster Master Guild Co-Founder, and the World’s Fastest Oyster Shucker. He first cooked with green crabs over a decade ago and is passionate about the impact of green crabs on the oyster industry and innovative solutions.

Alicia Gaiero

Alicia is the founder and co-owner of Nauti Sisters Sea Farm: a female-run oyster and scallop farm located in Yarmouth, Maine. Last year her farm was inundated by invasive green crabs so she started trapping the invasive to remove them. In the future, Nauti Sisters would love to find ways to utilize removed green crabs.

Captain Jason Jarvis

Jason is a commercial green crab harvester, the Board President of the North American Marine Alliance, and a Co-Founder of Quonochontaug Food Cooperative. He’s supplied green crabs to James Beard Award-winning restaurants such as The Shipwright’s Daughter and is a leader in the culinary fishery. He’s also worked on oyster farms and brings a unique perspective to the intersection of the oyster industry and green crab fishery.

Kelsey Meyer-Rust

Kelsey is a UNH PhD Candidate in Marine Biology and the former coordinator for the NH Shellfish Farmers Initiative. Her work investigates the relationship between green crabs and oyster farms and she recently published a paper integrating farmer perspectives on green crabs.

Michael Masi

Mike is the founder of Shell + Claw: an oyster farm based in York, ME that also molts soft-shell green crab. Over the past few years, he’s refined his process of molting green crabs and supplied his soft-shells to restaurants in Maine, New Hampshire, and Boston. He’s also worked alongside Tae Chong, giving away hard-shell green crabs to members of Maine’s Khmer community.

 

This virtual panel was hosted as part of Green Crab Week 2024: a restaurant week aimed at increasing chef and home cook participation in the fishery and spreading awareness of green crab’s invasive impact. Learn more about Green Crab Week here. 

Green Crab Culinary Markets & Products

Hosted as part of Green Crab Week 2024

 
Mary Parks
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