Pictured: Wang Bao and Master Fu show the crab king crab after xinmin evening news reporter Gao Yang photographed
Take a caliper to measure the length of the crab shell, throw the water on the scale to "weigh", and then calculate a score for the female crab and the male crab according to the formula; the "examiners" carefully inspect each "examination room" - crab box, pick out a crab back, identify the crab belly, carry the crab foot, and detect the crab hair, and the "appearance" score is also very important. Autumn winds, crab feet itch. Today, the annual Shanghai Ocean University Crab Culture Festival and the "Wang Baohe Cup" National River Crab Competition kicked off once again. About 2,500 river crabs from more than 100 units in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan and other places will compete for the annual "Oscar" of the national river crab industry. After weighing, this year's crab king weighed 657.7 grams, and the crab queen weighed 426.1 grams, and the crab king broke the record of the heaviest in the past, after 13 evaluations, the heaviest crab king was 643.0 grams last year, and the heaviest crab queen was 473.6 grams, which was created in 2009. "It's pretty much what I expected, but this year's river crabs are generally good." Wang Chenghui, chief expert of the Shanghai Chinese river crab industry technology system and professor of Shanghai Ocean University, told reporters.
Consumers have more choice
What are the standards for "five-star" hairy crabs, which is a "must-answer question" for river crab experts every autumn. The "five-word recipe" of "fat and fishy and sweet" is not difficult to remember. "Fat" refers to the river crab body thickness, large fullness, strong internal muscles, rich cream, from the appearance, the cephalothorax carapace and crab umbilicus between the gap increases, the larger the gap here, the fatter the body. Female crabs above 3 pairs (150 grams) and male crabs above 4 pairs (200 grams) are the "large" standard. Live river crabs have a strong crab smell, which means "fishy". "Fresh" is required to be rich in free amino acids in the muscles of river crabs, especially umami amino acids. "Sweet" means that glycine and alanine are abundant in the muscles and have a slightly sweet taste.
Pictured: The staff measures the size of river crabs, and Sun Zhongqin, a reporter for xinmin evening news, took a photo
Affected by the sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic at the beginning of the year, the stocking of crab species and the management of rearing in the early stage of breeding have been seriously affected. At the same time, the flood in the middle of the year has formed a further huge impact on river crab farming, resulting in a decline in the breeding area and production of river crabs to varying degrees this year. "However, farmers adhere to the epidemic prevention and control and the resumption of production and production promotion of both hands, two hands hard; adhere to flood prevention and disaster control and grass crab protection two promotion, two consolidation, coupled with the later careful management, the river crab industry showed a development trend of first suppressed and then rising, in 2020 the national river crab production slightly declined, but the grow-out specifications are generally larger than last year, the quality has also improved." Professor Wang Chenghui said, "At present, the national crab source is sufficient, the crab products are excellent, and there are many opportunities for consumers to choose. ”
Shanghai river crab "a hundred flowers blooming"
It is gratifying that the Shanghai river crab industry has shown a good situation of a hundred flowers blooming. The organizer told reporters that this year, there are 27 river crab units in Shanghai, accounting for about one-third of the country, covering chongming, Songjiang, Baoshan, Pudong, Qingpu, Jinshan and other crab farming areas in Shanghai. "This shows that after years of joint efforts by the relevant departments of Shanghai Municipality, all the personnel of the Shanghai Chinese River Crab Industry Technology System and the majority of farmers, the hairy crabs cultivated in Shanghai have developed from the previous backwardness and catch-up to running and leading, and the Shanghai river crab industry has been full of strength and confidence to compete with hairy crabs from all over the country." Wang Chenghui said.
At present, the local crabs in Shanghai will not be lower than the hairy crabs in other parts of the country in terms of appearance, specifications, taste and quality. This year, the Shanghai river crab industry has shown gratifying characteristics of larger specifications, better quality and better efficiency, which is the best period in history. However, due to the limitation of breeding capacity, the area and output of locally farmed commercial crabs in Shanghai are limited, and citizens who want to eat local hairy crabs need to act early.
"Raising big crabs" to "raising famous crabs"
Chen Shunsheng, a professor at the School of Food of Shanghai Ocean University, introduced that the vast majority of crabs in the world live in the ocean, and hairy crabs are the most typical crabs that grow in fresh water, so they are called river crabs. There are three main production areas of hairy crabs in China: Yangcheng Lake, Gucheng Lake and Taihu Lake Basin.
Experts said that After China's river crab industry has experienced the development stage of "big crab farming" to "big crab raising", it has begun to enter a new stage and a new development period of "raising famous crabs". In the process of breeding, six "more attention" is reflected: more attention is paid to the conservation of the ecological environment of the water area, more attention is paid to the application of high-quality germplasm of river crabs, more attention is paid to the implementation of new breeding models and new technologies, more attention is paid to the close integration of scientific and technological innovation and production practice, more attention is paid to the coordinated development of aquaculture output and quality, and more attention is paid to quality improvement and brand building. "Farmers have embarked on a new development path of scientific and technological crab farming, quality crab, green strong crab, and brand crab promotion, and promoted the river crab industry from production-oriented to quality-oriented." Wang Chenghui said. From the "raising big crabs" to the new stage of development of "famous crabs", the majority of consumers will be able to enjoy better quality, reasonable price of famous hairy crabs.
Xinmin Evening News reporter Gao Yang