The Mediterranean spider crab returns to the Sa Dragonera Marine Reserve

May 24, 2022 | Current affairs, Featured, Thursday Daily Bulletin, Tradition

Fishermen from the port of Andratx have caught and released two native spider crabs (Maja squinado) this weekend in the Sa Dragonera Marine Reserve. According to the Directorate-General for Fisheries and the Marine Environment of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, this is a very significant event, as no specimen of this endemic Mediterranean species, which was practically extinct in the Balearic Islands, had been seen here for years. Both the points of capture and release are kept secret.

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The Mediterranean spider crab is a large decapod crustacean, typical of rocky shelf bottoms, which approaches the coast in spring to reproduce. Until the first half of the 20th century, it was an extraordinarily abundant species, to the point that, despite being a delicacy, its consumption was frowned upon and fishermen destroyed it when it fell into their nets. From the 1960s onwards, coinciding with the mechanisation of professional fishing and the appearance of nylon nets, the Mediterranean spider crab became rare to such an extent that in the 1980s, sales at the fish market disappeared. Due to its rarification and at the proposal of the fishing sector, the Government of the Balearic Islands banned the capture and marketing of the crab throughout the islands at the beginning of the 21st century. Despite the various repopulation and captive breeding projects that have been carried out, the expected results have so far not been obtained.

Until now there was only evidence of a small population around the island of Formentera that was maintained and which, year after year, in spring comes to reproduce in the Freus Marine Reserve of Eivissa and Formentera, and of specimens around the island of Cabrera. These specimens, together with this weekend’s catches in Sa Dragonera, are a sign of optimism and perhaps a change in trend, and also that the policy of conservation of fishing resources together with the positive and responsible attitude of the fishing sector is beginning to produce results.

On the Spanish coast, there are two types of spider crab, morphologically very similar, but different. The Mediterranean spider crab found in the Balearic Islands (and also in Catalonia, France and Italy) retains the name ‘Maja squinado’ and is endemic to the Mediterranean, while the ‘Maja brachydactyla’ is of Atlantic distribution and is still an abundant species, which can be found in the fish markets of the Islands.