Features Podcast
Honing blue crab RAS with Rodrigo Mezerhane of Blue Star Foods

April 10, 2023 By Jean Ko Din

Rodrigo Mezerhane is the senior project manager at Blue Star Foods in the United States and his latest project is an interesting venture into a unique species in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). Atlantic blue crabs are cannibalistic which makes juvenile survival rates in captivity very low. This project’s solution is to capture Atlantic blue crabs from local fishermen and raise the stock through its late molting stage, instead of raising it in land from its early stages. But this doesn’t mean the species still doesn’t come with challenges. Rodrigo shares the meticulous challenge of establishing good Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in order for the facility to raise the blue crabs to be ready and harvested for consumers.

A 3D rendering of the blue crab commercial facility (Photo: Blue Star Foods Corp.)
(Photo: Blue Star Foods Corp.)
(Photo: Blue Star Foods Corp.)
The old shell crab on top compared with the soft shell crab ont he bottom (Photo: Blue Star Foods Corp.)
(Photo: Blue Star Foods Corp.)