ROME - In the shallow waters of the Scardovari lagoon, fishermen catch clams for Italy's beloved spaghetti alle vongole, alongside mussels and oysters. But an invader risks putting them out of business.
The blue crab, native to the North American Atlantic coast, has been present across the Mediterranean for years but in recent months has become a serious problem on Italy's northeastern coast.
"The blue crabs are eating everything. This stretch of lagoon is becoming a desert," said Gianluca Travaglia, a 52-year-old farmer of mussels and clams.
"Every day we fish more of them... I don't know what to do," Travaglia told AFP as he guided his motorboat across the water.
His fellow farmers had the same issue, he added.
"They can't even lower their nets anymore because the crabs swim into the nets and break them."
Italy's government allocated 2.9 million euros ($3.2-million) last month to address what Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida called a "critical situation".
The money will provide "economic incentives" for those catching and disposing of the crabs, which he said lack natural predators in Italian waters.
Business lobby Coldiretti has described the phenomenon as a crab "invasion", driven by warming waters and climate change.
Across the Italian seabed, the crabs are "exterminating clams, mussels, eggs, other fish and molluscs, putting at risk the survival of 3,000 businesses in the Po Delta", Coldiretti said.