Billions of crabs went missing around Alaska. Scientists now know what happened to them | CNN
www.cnn.com
Billions of snow crabs have disappeared from the ocean around Alaska in recent years, and scientists now say they know why: Warmer ocean temperatures likely caused them to starve to death.
  • HuddaBudda@kbin.social
    33·
    1 year ago

    6 billion down to 200,000 in 3 years. Give or take a few thousands

    We might end up putting these guys on the endangered species list to protect them. If it continues at this rate it may not even matter.

    They found that the temperature of the water was not above the species’ thermal limits, but it did increase their caloric needs considerably (see the Perspective by Kruse). This increase, in conjunction with a restriction in range, led to an unexpected mass starvation event.

    So crabs eat more in warmer seasons, and they didn’t have enough food. Good news is they will survive if the temperature doesn’t increase another 1-2 degrees. Bad news is, we are still on track for that.

    So it looks like a lot of us are going to have to get used to synthetic crab for a bit.

      • lolrightythen@lemmy.world
        9·
        1 year ago

        Kudos for the mathematical perspective. It seems wild to me that these crabs aren’t instantly considered critically endangered. Perhaps more evidence is required to confirm the data.

        Of course I didn’t read the article, but harvesting doesn’t help. I live about as far inland as you can get (not Russia, tho) and there are always “fresh” snow crab legs at the local grocery store.

      • Nudding@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        Seems like a pretty large domino, or am I wrong? Like how much biomass is that taken out of the food chain?

    • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      Then you have to consider, what sea life eats the crabs? What eats whatever those are… etc etc. This is how the end begins in the oceans.