Sorsogon village to put up ‘lying-in clinic’ for blue crabs

SORSOGON, Philippines – A small village in Castilla, Sorsogon plans to put up lying-in cages that will help propagate the world’s sweetest blue crabs. 

“Our blue crab fishers [harvest]…100 to 200 kilos every day, and in order to sustain the industry, we will be putting up the crab lying-in clinic to separate the pregnant crabs for spawning purposes,” Barangay Poblacion chief Alex Sotto said.

Poblacion has 788 households with 893 families or 3,693 individuals, 80% of whom are engaged in blue crab fishing. 

“This will be the first lying-in clinic for blue crabs in the country or even in the world. We passed through a barangay ordinance creating lying-in clinic for crabs intended for the spawning and sustainability of blue crabs in the coming decades,” Sotto said.

He said they have instructed crab fishers to bring pregnant crabs they catch to the lying-in cages.

They’re working closely with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to help educate crab fishers about setting up the lying-in cages.

According to Sotto, the blue crabs in Poblacion are among the best, yummiest, and sweetest in Castilla. 

During the first Crab Festival 2019 held in Castilla, Sorsogon, Sotto and his councilors joined a 500-meter long boodle fight that served lots of cooked crabs to the public and visiting guests. 

Poblacion is said to be the crab basket in Sorsogon that produces the world’s sweetest blue crabs, as well as squids. 

Sotto said Poblacion is home to the Nasipit River, an ecotourism site where the tributary is part of the larger Dulangan-Nasipit-Pili estuary emptying to the seas where the fresh and salt waters meet.

This waterway runs along the villages of Poblacion, Libtong, and San Isidro which is also rich and swarming with the local shellfish called kunaw.

Sotto said they hope to annually showcase the village’s bountiful harvest through the Crab Festival. Aside from the boodle fight, this year’s festivity featured a street dance presentation, a float parade, a cooking contest, and an oath-taking of a fisherfolk organization. – Rappler.com