Since February 2022, the shores of Shandong Jiaozhou Bay have been invaded by starfish, and starfish have appeared in groups, becoming a major hazard in the sea, which can be called “sea locusts”! They specialize in eating seafood such as abalone and clams, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for the local fishery.
“Locust on the sea”
Some friends may say, this “big star” looks like he has no hands and feet, and he doesn’t even have a mouth, is it so harmful? This has to start with our seafood table. The most common delicacy on the seafood table is clams, which are often served on a large plate and are swept away by many diners in less than five minutes. And the delicious and fine abalone has made countless diners salivate.
Where did this clam and abalone come from? Fishing alone can not satisfy the appetite of many diners, and the key lies in scientific breeding and breeding. Take clams, for example, March is the season for last year’s clam harvest and this year’s seedlings. However, not only do we love to eat these seafood delicious, starfish love to eat more.
This disaster, the place where the starfish went was notorious. All the clams are swept away. According to statistics, the local disaster area is about 100,000 mu, and the economic loss is expected to be as high as 100 million yuan. How can this starfish be so edible?
This also starts with the structure of the starfish itself: although the bones of the starfish cannot move, the movement and foraging of the body all rely on five wrists sticking out from the center of the body to move, but their mouths are extremely special and located directly below the center of the body. This makes them basically see what they eat when they move!
And the starfish have two stomachs, one of which can even shoot out of the mouth and directly insert into the shellfish for digestion, which is equivalent to digesting food outside the body, which allows the starfish to eat many foods larger than its mouth. Undigested food is sent into the body, the other stomach continues to digest and absorb, and even there are many digestive tubes in their wrists. Their stomachs are large and their intestines are short. Because, starfish have a low digestibility of food and need to eat all the time to get energy!
The key point is that starfish lack brain structure, to put it bluntly, there is no brain, no brain naturally does not know what is full, see what to eat! It doesn’t matter if it has no brains, the impact on the fishery aquaculture industry is very huge. This was originally the season for clam seedlings, but now the seedlings are undoubtedly given to the starfish for a feast, do not release seedlings, and there will be no harvest next year, farmers are really headaches and dilemmas.
So what causes starfish to be so infestation?
Why are starfish flooding?
The first point is the reduction of starfish predators, starfish are metamorphosis development, the first two months of life are plankton-like larvae, at this time it is easy to be attacked by yellow fish, sea bass, large snails and oil wax film shrimp that eat starfish. However, with the increase of La Niña in the past two years, the sea temperature in the west has increased and the air pressure has decreased, resulting in great changes in the marine environment. On the other hand, due to human overexploitation of marine resources, it has caused a large decline in starfish predators in offshore areas.
The hurricane caused by La Niña brought a lot of nutrients that starfish larvae need, which greatly improved the survival rate of starfish larvae. In addition, higher water temperatures are more conducive to the evolution of larvae, and scientific studies have shown that starfish populations will increase to varying degrees in areas with average water temperatures above 30°C. As a shellfish farming area, Jiaozhou Bay is rich in food sources. Clams happen to be one of Starfish’s favorite foods. Because clams are moderately sized and have weak shells. It is not surprising that starfish congregate in large numbers in shellfish farming areas.
At the same time, the reproductive ability of starfish is even more amazing, most starfish do not need to mate, only in vitro fertilization to complete reproduction. Most female starfish lay very large eggs, expelling 2.5 million eggs, and as long as these eggs combine with sperm in the water, they can produce new life. And after a few weeks of gestation, it will turn into larvae and begin to feed and develop.
And starfish also have tenacious vitality and regenerative ability, not only the cut off part can grow back quickly, but any shed part will also regenerate a new individual, so starfish can reproduce in large numbers through this asexual reproduction method even if they do not mate.
What should we do in the face of such a disaster? One word: eat!
How do you eat starfish?
Since the outbreak of the disaster, the most direct and effective way is to catch and eat! According to statistics, local fishermen have killed about 450,000 catties of starfish by artificial fishing and other methods. How to deal with so many starfish salvaged? It can only be eaten. Although the price is not as good as high-end seafood such as clams and abalone, it can be regarded as some financial compensation for local fishermen.
Starfish can be described as a rare delicacy, and foodie netizens across the country have asked for battle as soon as they hear about the disaster in Jiaodongwan. Many netizens have popularized the eating method of starfish on the Internet: like hairy crabs, boiled in water, and then dipped in vinegar to eat, one by one starfish feet are broken apart is similar to crab roe. And Guangdong netizens said that it can be dried and mixed with fruit star fruit in soup, which is definitely delicious in the world.
But most people probably don’t know that we don’t eat starfish meat, but starfish seeds, their reproductive glands. Although it contains a large amount of protein, amino acids and other substances, the cholesterol content is also relatively high, and because it contains more saponins, eating too much is easy to food poisoning.
Even among the more than a thousand species of starfish, many species are inherently toxic, such as purple starfish, which often appear at the same time as edible starfish in shallow seas and beaches, although they can be touched, but absolutely not edible.
In addition, there are two kinds of people who recommend not eating starfish: one is seafood allergy, starfish is also a kind of seafood after all, it is easy to cause such people itching, redness, and even rash and other allergic reactions; The second is people with poor digestive function, because starfish are rich in a lot of protein and vitamins, and excessive consumption is easy to cause symptoms such as indigestion.
Returning to the topic of starfish flooding, eating alone is not a long-term solution.
In the future, the focus will also be on the continuous monitoring of biomass in aquaculture areas and surrounding seas, scientific assessment of potential impact risks, and research and promotion of the most effective measures and methods for the disposal of starfish, so as to establish a long-term effective mechanism to face disasters.
On the one hand, we need the efforts of scientific research institutions, on the other hand, we also need the strong cooperation of fishermen and citizens, I believe that in the near future, with the advancement of science and technology, scientific propaganda and guidance work, our shellfish breeding work will definitely be able to get rid of the harassment of starfish, the bottom locust, and carry out vigorously and orderly. Let every family eat clams and abalone on the table!