Chinese Mitten Crab created by BIG NAZO heads to Olympics

February 25, 2010, VANCOUVER – A larger-than-life-size Chinese Mitten Crab, an aquatic invasive species in the U.S., is spending time in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The mitten crab, another creation by Big Nazo, a Providence-based international performance group, has traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to perform at the Olympics and while there, educate the public about aquatic invasive species. The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) commissioned Big Nazo to create a mascot under the Rhode Island Aquatic Invasive Species Management Plan, which was approved by the federal Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force in 2007.

The mitten crab was inspired by the R.I. Resource Recovery’s Max Man puppet, which serves as a mascot to educate the public on recycling. The crab’s purpose will similarly be to educate the public on the problems of aquatic invasive species and will appear at public events and through school programs.

The puppet crab – created with a special foam and latex fabrication process by Big Nazo – is a taxonomically accurate male, complete with its telltale mitten claws. The Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinensis) was first discovered on the East Coast in Chesapeake Bay in 2005. As of 2007, they had been discovered in the Hudson River estuary in New York, clearly indicating a northward expansion of this species toward Rhode Island. The recent capture of a female crab bearing eggs indicated that reproductive populations have been established in New York.

The crab is native to East Asia, and invasive populations have already been established in Europe and on the West Coast of the U.S. The crab is listed as Injurious Wildlife under the Federal Lacey Act, which makes it illegal in the United States to import, export, or conduct interstate commerce of Mitten Crabs without a permit. The crab is a catadromous species, reproducing in salt water and continuing its lifecycle in coastal rivers. Young crabs spend 2-5 years in freshwater tributaries and can travel miles upstream of bays and estuaries. Mature male and female crabs migrate downstream to spawn in saltwater estuaries. Chinese Mitten Crabs burrow into banks and levees along estuaries and are able to leave the water to walk around obstacles while migrating. The crabs’ burrowing can also cause habitat destruction through riverbank collapse; they also compete for food and habitat with native, commercially valuable species like the blue crab.  

Big Nazo – the creation of RISD instructor Erminio Pinque - is an international performance group of visual artists, puppet performers and masked musicians who create larger-than-life characters, environments and scenes. Some of their characters include mountain trolls, blob-like Go-Go dancers, a lab rat and a giant man-eating chia pet. The group combines mask and puppetry techniques with stand-up comedy, Science Fiction, Go-Go dancing, stunts, soap opera humor and professional wrestling with live rock and funk music and audience-interactive improvisation. Big Nazo recently opened a downtown Providence storefront NAZO LAB at 25 Fulton St. across from Providence City

Hall. The lab serves as an exhibition space, a creature-building workshop and community space.

For more information on Big Nazo, go to www.bignazo.com or to see photos of the crab in Vancouver, go to http://bignazo.tumblr.com/tagged/2010_Winter_Olympics. For more information on the Chinese Mitten Crab or the R.I. Aquatic Invasive Species Management Plan, go to the CRMC web site at http://www.crmc.ri.gov/invasives.html.

To request a visit from the crab, please contact Laura Ricketson-Dwyer at CRMC.

Photo of the Chinese Mitten Crab puppet at the New York Natural Museum of History 2009 Halloween celebration (Photo courtesy of Big Nazo)