Expert identifies "key culprit" in mass die-off of Alaska snow crabs

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Climate change is a prime suspect in a mass die-off of Alaska's snow crabs, experts say, after the state took the unprecedented step of canceling their harvest this season to save the species.

According to an annual survey of the Bering Sea floor carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, estimates for the crustaceans' total numbers fell to about 1.9 billion in 2022, down from 11.7 billion in 2018, or a reduction of about 84 percent.

For the first time ever, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the Bering Sea snow crab season will remain closed for 2022-23, saying in a statement, efforts must turn to "conservation and rebuilding given the condition of the stock." The state's fisheries produce 60% of the nation's seafood.

-snip-

Erin Fedewa, a marine biologist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, told AFP the shocking numbers seen today are the result of heatwaves in 2018 and 2019.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/expert-identifies-key-culprit-in-mass-die-off-of-alaska-snow-crabs/ar-AA13bQlo

[Kaleva]

1. And yet people don't seem to think that climate change is already here

[cilla4progress]

2. duuuhhhhh.....

people won't face it like grown-ups to try and actually do something about it.

[hatrack]

3. And massive overfishing might have had something to do with it . . .

My brother's lived there since 75. Then and through the early 80s, you would see vendors on the streets in Anchorage holding up whole king crabs, using their outstretched arms to hold them up. The price? $10 and occasionally $5 for a king crab with legs roughly the size of an adult's forearm.

Well, those days are long gone. The Kodiak fleet fished it out, and then they started going after the snow crab, and it's fished out (and what's left of it is retreating north since the ice isn't there to protect them from the fishing fleet).

I guess that leaves us krill and jellyfish.

[Effete Snob]

4. Lemme guess... the Palins are less sexually active?