A team of marine biologists from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has solved the mystery of approximately why this happens. 10 billion Cancers from snow (Chionoecetes opilio) Lost in the Bering Sea in the 2018/2019 season: They just died of hunger. But why?.
In his study published in the journal Sciencescientists used data from previous studies How do snow crabs respond to warmer temperatures?. North Pacific Research Board member Gordon Kruse published an article in the journal PerspectiveIt describes the events surrounding the sharp decline in the snow crab population and the work the team did in an attempt to discover why this was happening.
Snow crabs are relatively small animals that, despite their name, are not white but red like lobsters. They live in shallow areas at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and have been consumed as a real delicacy for centuries.
Alaska fishermen (and scientists) A significant decrease in their population was recorded for the first time in 2021. Later, fishing and crab research were stopped for a year due to the epidemic. The full extent of the crab decline was not determined until early 2023: more than 10 billion crabs were missing. Realizing this alarming decline, a team of researchers set out to find out what was happening.
The team began searching nearby areas, hoping the crabs had moved elsewhere, but they found no sign of the crabs.
The higher the temperature, the greater the need for food.
They then consulted results from an earlier study, realizing that the region was experiencing a heat wave that coincided with the crab’s disappearance. When the water temperature increases, the nutritional and energy needs of crabs also increase.. The researchers found that the crabs’ caloric needs doubled if the water temperature increased by just 3°C.
The data obtained showed that: During this heat wave, the water temperature increased by 3°C.This meant the crabs would need twice as much food to survive. The research team also found that just before the heatwave, the population of this species increased significantly, meaning there was a huge increase in competition for food. And the researchers concluded that this caused the crabs to starve to death.
Reference work: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf6035
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