US Scientists Identify Cause of Massive Crab Die-Off

Long-time Slashdot reader mmell writes:

Recent reports have indicated a near-complete collapse in the population of Snow Crabs in the Bering Sea. Scientists with the US Government's National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration have concluded that warming in the environment has led to vast numbers of snow crabs starving to death.

There has been a lot of back-and-forth, a lot of argument on whether or how much humanity has had an effect on the fundamental ecology of our planet... Here is a fine example of anthropogenic change to the planet's weather, ecosystems and even the planet's very ability to feed us.

From the government's findings on the NOAA web site:

'What is particularly noteworthy is these boreal conditions associated with the snow crab collapse are more than 200 times likely to occur in the present climate (1.0 degrees -1.5 degrees of warming rate) than in the preindustrial era,' said Mike Litzow, lead author and director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Kodiak Lab. 'Even more concerning is that Arctic conditions conducive for snow crabs to retain their dominant role in the southeastern Bering Sea are expected to continue to decline in the future.' Litzow and his team expect to see Arctic conditions in only 8 percent of future years in the southeastern Bering Sea.


The warmer temperatures brought existential threats including including a fatal disease and more crab-eating predators, their study found. CNN reports that the crabs' 'horrific demise appears to be just one impact of the massive transition unfolding in the region, scientists reported... Parts of the Bering Sea are literally becoming less Arctic.'

Billions of crabs ultimately starved to death, devastating Alaska's fishing industry in the years that followed... The decline of the Alaskan snow crab signals a wider ecosystem change in the Arctic, as oceans warm and sea ice disappears. The ocean around Alaska is now becoming inhospitable for several marine species, including red king crab and sea lions, experts say...

The Arctic region has warmed four times faster
than the rest of the planet, scientists have reported. Litzow called what's happening in the Bering Sea a 'bellwether' of what's to come. 'All of us need to recognize the impacts of climate change,' he said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.