Enrico Caterino

On Tuesday 6 August the Meloni Government appointed Enrico Caterino, former prefect of Rovigo and Ravenna, as extraordinary commissioner to deal with the emergency linked to the proliferation of the blue crab in Italian waters.This decision responds to growing concerns regarding the serious economic and ecological impact caused by the spread of this invasive species, particularly in the Adriatic Sea.According to the Minister of the Environment, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, the blue crab is threatening not only various economic activities, but also the entire marine ecosystem. The invasion of the blue crab (so called because of the color of its carapace), known scientifically as Callinectes sapidus, has started to cause alarm since 2020, despite the fact that specimens have been spotted in our waters since the mid-1990s.Native to the western coasts of the American continent, the blue crab arrived in the Mediterranean Sea via the “ballasts” of transatlantic ships, which capture...