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Marine Biologist-Why Have Billions of Snow Crabs Disappeared

submitted by newtboy

2 years 2 weeks ago

Alaska has cancelled this year's snow crab harvest for the first time ever after 90% of the snow crabs disappeared. BILLIONS of snow crabs vanished from the Bering Sea. By why? Why did billions of crabs disappear? Scientists are investigating, with many saying the snow crab population decline is caused by climate change.

I am a marine biologist with over a decade of experience working with marine mammals who prey on snow crabs. When the sea ice shrinks, juvenile snow crab are exposed to predators. So the snow crab have no choice but to migrate. That is just one of many possible reasons Alaskan officials are investigating for why the snow crab disappeared -- some believe climate change has forced the snow crabs to migrate into deeper waters of the Bering Sea or north into the colder waters of the Arctic.

Climate change is very real and Alaska is the fastest warming US state:
While the NOAA claims the snow crab disappearance was not caused by overfishing, it should be noted that they said the same about Alaskan king crab. King crab suffered a similar decline in the 80s that they still haven’t recovered from. Crab fishermen are at a loss because the Alaska king crab harvest has been cancelled for the second year in a row.

Alaskan fisheries employed an average of 29,400 commercial fishermen each year. The state of Alaska harvests more seafood than the rest of the US combined. Over 60% of the nation's seafood comes from Alaskan waters. With snow crab season cancelled because of the missing snow crabs, the thousands of crab fisherman are now wondering if they'll go out of business.

Last year, a biologist who worked at NOAA Fisheries filed a whistleblower complaint claiming the NOAA “ paved the way for the collapse of the king crab population by engaging in sampling bias and data falsification.” According to him, the real culprit was bycatch.