Cooking With Green Crabs on Revere Beach Brings Awareness to a Destructive but Tasty Invasive Species

Special to the Journal

On Thursday, August 18th, three local chefs took to Revere Beach to showcase their culinary creations using European Green Crabs, an invasive species now found commonly in Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay. Greencrab.org partnered with Eating the Ecosystem to demonstrate how to cook green crabs and to raise awareness on the damage this invasive species has done to the ecosystem. This event was made possible through a grant from Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s Better Beaches Program partnership with the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).

“This is a fun, and delicious way to connect people to the harbor and raise awareness about the impact of green crabs on our ecosystem,” said Chris Mancini, Executive Director of Save the Harbor/Save the Bay. “It also brings free food to environmental justice communities and helps demystify cooking with this unusual, but plentiful and affordable species. Thanks to Greencrab.org for cultivating this culinary experience and bringing the community together on America’s first public beach.”

Chef Youji Iwakura created a seafood ramen, using green crabs to make a rich seafood broth combined with shrimp, vegetables and ramen noodles. Chef Ernie Campbell from Jamaica Mi Hungry demonstrated how to cook a green crab curry with rice and beans. Chef Andrew McQuesten made pressed rice with green crab, green crab roe and corn relish. This was each chef’s first time cooking with green crabs, and attendees sampled each dish while they learned about the history and consequences of green crabs in our ecosystem. The organization provided information about green crabs in multiple languages and green crab coloring books to engage people of all ages and who may speak a language other than English as their primary language. You can find green crab recipes at https://www.greencrab.org/recipes.

“I want to thank Save the Harbor/Save the Bay for sponsoring the Cooking with Green Crabs event, on Revere Beach this past week,” said Representative Jessica Giannino. “I am so proud that events like this are happening in the district to spread awareness on a range of environmental issues, like how we deal with invasive species creatively.  Environmental justice and coastal communities, like Revere, need to be able to utilize all the resources they have available, and bringing awareness with events like this is a major first step.”

“Green crabs cause a lot of problems for local ecosystems and fisheries but they’re also delicious. Our organization is all about ‘eating the problem’ and developing culinary markets for a species that’s largely underutilized in the U.S.,” said Mary Parks, Founder and Director of Greencrab.org. “Our goal for this event was to get people in the community excited about the many ways you can cook with green crab and provide free resources and recipes in multiple languages so that more people can learn about this underutilized resource. We were so excited to partner with Eating with the Ecosystem for this event, given their focus on local and underutilized seafood and our biggest thanks to Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s Better Beaches Program for making this event possible.”

According to Save the Harbor/Save the Bays Development Director Patricia Salic, free beach events like this would not be possible without their program partners and event sponsors, including Arctic Chill and Harpoon Brewery, JetBlue, FMC Ice Sports, P&G Gillette, National Grid, Coast Cannabis, the Daily Catch, Comcast, Mix 104.1, iZotope, Inc, The Blue Sky Collaborative, Boston & Maine Webcams, BostonHarbor.com, The Boston Foundation, and The Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation.

In addition, Save the Harbor recognized the Metropolitan Beaches Commission Co-Chairs Senator Brendan Crighton of Lynn, and Representative Adrian Madaro of East Boston and the legislative and community members of the Commission as well as Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano for their support for their beaches and communities. Save the Harbor also thanked the Baker-Polito Administration, the Massachusetts Legislature, Save the Harbor’s partners at the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Boston Centers for Youth & Families, the YMCA of Greater Boston, and the hundreds of people who took part in the Shamrock Splash for their support.

A copy of this release and a calendar of Better Beaches events is available in more than 100 languages on Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s blog Sea, Sand & Sky at http://blog.savetheharbor.org

To learn more about Save the Harbor/Save the Bay and the great work they do to restore, protect and share Boston Harbor, the waterfront, islands, and the region’s public beaches with all Bostonians and the region’s residents, visit their website at www.savetheharbor.org and follow @savetheharbor on social media.

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