Our team presented five pop-up events on waterways and beaches in the metro Boston area for people to learn about green crabs, their ecological impact, and how to cook with this delicious species. Green crabs are an introduced species native to Europe and North Africa that causes major problems for local sea life and coastal environments locally. The pop-ups featured a sculpturally modified tent crafted from repurposed fishing materials, free green crab coloring books created by Boston-based graphic designer Eileen Riestra, and tastings at local restaurants across the Greater Boston Area.

Green crabs also pose a major threat to some of Massachusetts’ most valuable fisheries and vulnerable ecosystems. I imagined the materials of the current fishing industry as fabrics, and working with these materials felt like a quilting project, transforming materials into a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. In the same spirit of creative transformation, a goal for this project is to inspire people to think creatively about changing the way they eat in service of creating more balanced ecosystems. Incorporating green crabs into mainstream fish market offerings will require creative thinking and doing, and eating them is a great strategy to restore balance in our coastal environments in New England.

Check out the great article about our project in the Boston Globe!