'Eat alien shrimp,' says marine expert

Oceanography experts are encouraging people to eat an alien species of shrimp that has seen an increase in population over the past five years.

Prof. Alan Deidun took to Facebook on Monday with photos of the Red Sea mantis shrimp, a crustacean native to tropical waters first caught in Maltese waters five years ago.

The hand-sized creature is “very similar to the native mantis shrimp,” Deidun said in his post, and is common in places like Marsa, where it burrows in muddy sediment.

“I think it was carried here,” Deidun told Times of Malta, suggesting that the shrimp may have been brought in ship ballasts.

He said it is too early to know how the introduction of the mantis shrimp will affect the local marine ecosystem, yet there is a positive.

“It is edible,” he explained, “which means that its population can be kept in check” as the citizen science campaign coordinators encourage people to eat these invasive species.

An invasive species is a non-indigenous organism that can cause economic and environmental harm as its population grows in the new area.

Aliens spotted

The photos, taken by Callum Smith, form part of a campaign coordinated by Deidun and several others that aims to...