Invasive green crabs are bad for the environment so New Englanders are starting to eat more of them

In York, Maine, Mike Masi and interns sort invasive European green crabs, focusing on the soft phase right before they molt. The goal is to sell them as premium seafood while reducing ecological damage. Masi’s company, shell+claw, is the only one in the region that commercially cultivates these crabs. He said prices can reach $3 per crab at market, versus as little as 8 cents for a hard shell. The crabs, Carcinus maenas, arrived centuries ago via ship ballast and now number in the tens of millions, outcompeting rock crabs and juvenile lobster, destroying eelgrass and undermining salt marshes. Their spread has driven major declines in shellfish landings, with soft-shell clam landings falling from over 7.8 million pounds in 1978 to 1.3 million in 2025, per the state.