Fighting Invasive Species One Bite at a Time

Species

Asian Shore Crab

The first sighting of the Asian shore crab in the United States was at Townsend Inlet, New Jersey, in 1988. Though the source is unknown, it is likely that the crabs were discharged as larvae from the ballast water of a cargo ship.

Periwinkle

First appearing in New England in the 1860s, periwinkles are now found along the coast wherever there’s hard substrate from Labrador to Maryland and along the West Coast.

Green Crab

Since the green crab was first recorded off southern Massachusetts in 1817, it has been hard to ignore. A few minutes of rock-flipping in Maine can turn up dozens of them, brandishing their claws as they retreat to the crags.

About

Founded in 2011, eattheinvaders.org is inspired by “Eat the Invaders!” published in Audubon Magazine by Joe Roman in September 2004. When the article first appeared, the response was crickets—and not necessarily invasive ones. But the rise of the foraging and locavore movement in the early 2000s and a focus on lionfish, green crab, and northern snakehead management have brought more attention to the idea. The concept has since been endorsed and reported on by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Australia Public Broadcasting, The New York Times, among many others.