Experts from the East China Sea Fishery Research Institute released 20,000 adult hairy crabs into the sea near the mouth of the Yangtze River yesterday. Their descendants are expected to land on people's tables in two years.

This is the first time that adult hairy crabs have been set free into the sea in the country, experts said.

"If everything goes smoothly, the release will result in an increase of natural baby crabs next year. When the baby crabs grow up in two years, people will be able to enjoy good-quality hairy crabs," said Chen Yaqu, a professor at the institute.

Experts say they expect the released crabs will reproduce 16 million to 24 million baby crabs next year.

"By that time, crab farmers will see a large number of baby crabs at the mouth of the Yangtze River, which hasn't happened for a long time," said Chen. "The natural crabs will serve local gourmets after two years' growth."

Each of the released crabs has undergone careful selection.

To guarantee the purity of the species, experts caught wild baby crabs in Yangcheng Lake, which is renowned for breeding top-quality hairy crabs, in September 2002.

Each male crab weighs 140 to 160 grams and each female crab weighs 90 to 120 grams because hairy crabs of this size are the most capable of breeding.

Cheng Yongxu, a doctor at Shanghai Fishery University added: "The crab release will also help control the toxic red tide, which is caused by a bloom of bacteria and algae, because baby crabs live on algae."

(Shanghai Daily December 21, 2004)