【Epoch Times News, October 28, 2025】”Hairy crabs” are known for their succulent meat and golden crab roe, making them one of the most cherished delicacies among the Chinese. However, for Xie Dandan and her family, crab farmers from the eastern part of Yangcheng Lake in Jiangsu Province, the past three years have brought unprecedented challenges to their over a decade-long farming career.
In an interview with Reuters, the 34-year-old farmer mentioned, “Since 2022, it feels like the weather has been getting worse each year.”
She added that due to abnormally high temperatures and an unusually long summer extending past expectations, disrupting the breeding cycle of hairy crabs, “we have mentally prepared ourselves for losses.”
Xie Dandan is one of the many farmers from Yangcheng Lake who have been forced to find ways to sustain the cultivation of Chinese mitten crabs. This delicious crustacean is currently facing increasing threats from extreme weather events.
Reflecting on the situation, Xie Dandan remarked, “Those in agriculture are at the mercy of the weather.” Her community was severely affected last year by the strongest typhoon to hit the east coast since 1949, tearing apart fishing nets and crippling the oxygen supply system.
Kenneth Leung, an expert in marine environments from the City University of Hong Kong, stated that unusually high temperatures pose a triple threat to hairy crabs: slowing growth, reducing oxygen levels in the water, and accelerating bacterial growth.
Hairy crab farming is a labor-intensive process, requiring the crabs to molt approximately five times from larvae to adulthood, mainly occurring between March and the traditional harvest period at the end of September. However, extreme climate events have severely disrupted this cycle.
This year, the Suzhou Lake area, renowned for its abundant hairy crab production, experienced prolonged summer temperatures fermenting well into October, still exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), delaying the maturation period of hairy crabs and shattering farmers’ hopes of a bountiful harvest.
During the molting process, crabs are extremely fragile, and exposure to intense heatwaves can lead to their death. Xie Dandan recalled how in 2022, farmers even had to release ice into the water to cool it down.
Over the past three years, China has seen a surge in extreme weather events, with climate data continuously breaking records:
– The eastern region of China endured the hottest and longest summer, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for multiple consecutive days as early as July.
– Meteorological officials in September declared this year’s summer in China as the hottest since 1961.
– Meanwhile, the northern regions experienced a record-breaking duration of continuous rainfall during the same period (since 1961).
Facing the survival crisis brought about by climate change, expert Kenneth Leung proposed the option of cultivating crab species that are more heat-resistant as a potential solution.
However, for grassroots farmers like Xie Dandan, the future is laden with uncertainties. She concluded, saying, “We can only wait and see if the hairy crabs can adapt. If they cannot adapt, perhaps this industry may face elimination. We are powerless against it.”