Alaska Cancels Snow Crab Season As Estimated 1 Billion Crabs Disappear (cbsnews.com) 62
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: In a major blow to America's seafood industry, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has, for the first time in state history, canceled the winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea due to their falling numbers. While restaurant menus will suffer, scientists worry what the sudden population plunge means for the health of the Arctic ecosystem. An estimated one billion crabs have mysteriously disappeared in two years, state officials said. It marks a 90% drop in their population.
Ben Daly, a researcher with ADF&G, is investigating where the crabs have gone. He monitors the health of the state's fisheries, which produce 60% of the nation's seafood. "Disease is one possibility," Daly told CBS News. He also points to climate change. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Alaska is the fastest warming state in the country, and is losing billions of tons of ice each year -- critical for crabs that need cold water to survive. "Environmental conditions are changing rapidly," Daly said. "We've seen warm conditions in the Bering Sea the last couple of years, and we're seeing a response in a cold adapted species, so it's pretty obvious this is connected. It is a canary in a coal mine for other species that need cold water." "Did they run up north to get that colder water?" asked Gabriel Prout, owner of a Kodiak Island fishing business heavily reliant on the snow crab population. "Did they completely cross the border? Did they walk off the continental shelf on the edge there, over the Bering Sea?"
Prout said there needs to be a relief program for fisherman, "similar to programs for farmers who experience crop failure, or communities affected by hurricanes or flooding," notes the report.
Ben Daly, a researcher with ADF&G, is investigating where the crabs have gone. He monitors the health of the state's fisheries, which produce 60% of the nation's seafood. "Disease is one possibility," Daly told CBS News. He also points to climate change. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Alaska is the fastest warming state in the country, and is losing billions of tons of ice each year -- critical for crabs that need cold water to survive. "Environmental conditions are changing rapidly," Daly said. "We've seen warm conditions in the Bering Sea the last couple of years, and we're seeing a response in a cold adapted species, so it's pretty obvious this is connected. It is a canary in a coal mine for other species that need cold water." "Did they run up north to get that colder water?" asked Gabriel Prout, owner of a Kodiak Island fishing business heavily reliant on the snow crab population. "Did they completely cross the border? Did they walk off the continental shelf on the edge there, over the Bering Sea?"
Prout said there needs to be a relief program for fisherman, "similar to programs for farmers who experience crop failure, or communities affected by hurricanes or flooding," notes the report.
Okay, wow... (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm sure there's context here that can be leveraged to support one argument or another... but that's a pretty profound change. Something's clearly up.
Not to mention, I really like eating snow crab. That's a shame...
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Speaking of right-wing idiocy, I wonder how "Deadliest Catch" will spin it?
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I wonder how "Deadliest Catch" will spin it?
Troll crab is the solution.
Re:Okay, wow... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a really substantial change in a very short period of time.
Fisheries often collapse very rapidly for reasons that we fail to understand.
The Atlantic cod fisheries collapsed rapidly once the cod population reached a tipping point. The best explanation is that cod eat capelin, so as the number of cod fell, the capelin population soared. But capelin prey on baby cod, so their higher numbers mean almost no baby cod survive to breed. This population inversion is proving very difficult to reverse.
Another "tipping point" happened with sea otters. Sea otters live in kelp forests and eat sea urchins. Urchins eat kelp and breed prolifically. When too many otters were killed, the urchins multiplied and destroyed the kelp forests, causing the otter population to fall even further as their habitat disappeared.
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Hopefully there's not a crab note somewhere saying, "So long and thanks for all the fish."
Re:Okay, wow... (Score:5, Funny)
Alaska is the fastest warming state in the country, and is losing billions of tons of ice each year
At the same time, Alaska is controlled by far right nutjobs who believe that climate change is just a liberal lie that should be ignored.
Prout said there needs to be a relief program for fisherman
Great. We should give them money so that retarded politicians in Alaska can continue to be retarded and continue to preach that climate change isn't real and continue to fight against anything that might actually help.
Re:Okay, wow... (Score:5, Interesting)
> Great. We should give them money so that retarded politicians in Alaska can continue to be retarded and continue to preach that climate change isn't real and continue to fight against anything that might actually help.
It's not even that, subsidising fisheries over stuff like this is insane; any fishery that depletes a fish stock so badly that there's nothing left should not then get taxpayer subsidies. It's like if Google deleted all its source code and then said, "You should subsidise our continued existence whilst we do fuck all".
Fisheries need to either fish sustainably or go bust to let someone hopefully more competent try and have a go once the populations recover. It's really quite that simple.
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I guess the small detail of this most probably having nothing to do with overfishing has no bearing on this opinion of yours.
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"... most probably having nothing to do ..."
That seems definite. At any rate, populations have been declining and yet they continued to fish.
Kind of hard to make the argument that overfishing has no bearing on the problem. It certainly didn't help.
You're now probably going to come back with some explanation of how "normal" fishing isn't "over" fishing, despite the fact, as mentioned by the parent. if you're not fishing sustainably then you're pretty much overfishing by definition.
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I call Strawman. @anoncow, declaring politicians "retarded" is not necessarily incorrect, but stating that they "preach that climate change isn't real" is misrepresenting the opposition's position. Few or none declare that "climate change" doesn't happen because it obviously has over the last few thousand years of recorded history and from evidence from prior to that. The argument is really over, do we destroy our modern way of life, economy, and culture by switching to unproven as economically viable, a
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No, it's the "zealots" who insist that doing anything other than maintaining the status quo will by definition "destroy" our modern way of life who are the real problem.
You're simply propagating the third level of denialism in that, yeah it's changing, and yeah, we probably had some impact on the matter... but hey, let's just keep on doing the same dumb shit that got us into this mess because, you know, I might be inconvenienced by actually doing something about it.
Of course, odds are that you're going to b
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Congratulations. You've conceded that the climate is changing, just not the ca
Re:Okay, wow... (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'm sure there's context here that can be leveraged to support one argument or another... but that's a pretty profound change. Something's clearly up.
Simplest explanation is the right one: liberals infiltrated a government environmental body and used their power to claim climate change killed them to cancel the entire winter economy of a conservative state.
Re: Cold water (Score:1)
No, they're not jumping to conclusions, they're literally describing their observations which explain the mechanism by which climate change impacts the population of this species.
And no it's not just one population, literally the last Slashdot article posted 40 minutes ago talks about a report showing an average 69% decline in global animal populations across thousands of speci
Re:Cold water (Score:4, Informative)
It is an obligation of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee at this time to remind the public of these essential points:
1) There is no conclusive scientific proof of a link between smoking and cancer.
2) Medical research points to many possible causes of cancer.
3) The millions of people who derive pleasure and satisfaction from smoking can be reassured that every scientific means will be used to get all the facts as soon as possible.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov]
Re:Cold water (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, I would be there with you if this was not a pretty well-used and regulated fishery.
They have managed to keep numbers up for decades, and I would imagine that they have some pretty effective models to support outcomes based on whatever sampling they are doing.
NBC story also mentions this is the second year the Red Crab season was shut down for same reason.
The red king crab season was canceled for the second year in a row, making it a two-pronged disaster for Alaska’s economy and for those whose livelihoods rely on crab. [nbcnews.com]
Apparently, actual scientists have determined the amount of heat increase and the effect on crab populations:
Scientists are still evaluating the cause or causes of the snow crab collapse, but it follows a stretch of record-breaking warmth in Bering Sea waters that spiked in 2019. Miranda Westphal, an area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the warmer waters likely contributed to young crabs’ starvation and the stock’s decline. [noaa.gov]
Where else would you look for pressures on their population? Illegal fishing? I am curious what else you think may be going on here.
Re:Cold water (Score:4, Interesting)
This is one of the few times it's actually interesting to watch shows like Deadliest Catch - because you know next season's episodes will have to deal with this (they already dealt with red king crab closures, and showed how people went with golden king crab or flew to Norway to fish, spinning off another series).
Illegal fishing does happen, but that's not from Americans fishing illegally, it's from Russians crossing the line and trawling
And apparently, it's also all about opening new markets - the spinoff Deadliest Catch series is about a new species of crab being fished - which because it has little current economic value, does not have any quotas and is a free for all.
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Right. The crabs are just pining for the fjords.
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No one is jumping to any conclusions. This collapse has been predicted for years by scientists. The causes are known. The potential solutions were known. And we've simply ignored those warnings and failed to implement the solutions. Largely because those solutions mostly boiled down to "harvest far fewer crabs each year than the industry currently does."
russia can fish it (Score:2)
russia can fish it
CN - NK (Score:3, Interesting)
If the snow crabs ball up like other species, one big slurp and they are gone...
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The fishing industry had been warning of excess "bycatch" from trawlers.
Nope. (Score:2)
Awh (Score:2)
Simple fix: (Score:1)
just play the episodes in reverse.
Best Part of the Quote! (Score:2, Informative)
The summary left out the best part of the article!
When asked what fishermen can do in this situation, with their livelihoods dependent on the ocean, Prout responded, "Hope and pray. I guess that's the best way to say it."
Translation: "Not a damn thing."
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How about: seek a different line of work?
That's what I was told to do back when my job evaporated entirely due to shifting market conditions.
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Let me be clear I'm not blaming the voters, there's so much propaganda and political advertising that it's hard for anyone to cut through it, but I do wish that they could cut through it because their lives and mine would be better
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I do blame the voters. Sticking their heads in the sands and only listening to their preferred silos is stupid. They are to blame for electing those congress people.
That's not what they're doing (Score:2)
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The summary left out the best part of the article!
When asked what fishermen can do in this situation, with their livelihoods dependent on the ocean, Prout responded, "Hope and pray. I guess that's the best way to say it."
Translation: "Not a damn thing."
The question they're answering isn't about the root problem; they're answering about their jobs, their businesses. It is already too late to save this season, so they're screwed.
If you try to ask them, "What can be done for the future?" they will start talking about the need for financing, not anything about the crabs.
Record low sea ice 2018, 2019 and cod predation (Score:5, Interesting)
According to another report earlier, "The changes in the Bering Sea include dramatic declines in winter ice cover in 2018 and 2019, which resulted in reduced size of a cold pool on the bottom favored by young crab.
Some of the causes for the population decline likely include increased predation of the young snow crab by cod which typically stay out of the cold pool as well as overall stress caused by the higher temperatures, according to federal and Alaska state scientists who spoke during the virtual council meeting. Researchers also have tracked increased disease.
Cross referenced stories? (Score:2)
In other crab related news... (Score:4, Funny)
Mass crab deaths [bbc.com] have been reported in Zanzibar and The Seychelles.
Maybe they're all headed to one big crab rave [youtube.com]?
Brutal Harvest (Score:2)
The commercial fishermen rip the legs off live and toss the body back in the water - presumably to bleed out or die of shock. Hunting is fine, but have some class.
This isn't good (Score:2)
Crab invasions (Score:3)
Here in the Netherlands, we are currently undergoing a crawfish (escaped from people's aquariums) and chinese mitten crabs (hitched a ride on transport ships) invasions. Maybe we can make a deal, take those off our hands? Will trade for rabbits, as they have been dying of myxomatosis since the 1970's and our dunes are overgrowing with shrubs and trees due to the lack of them, maybe some cross-deal with Australia?
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The mitten crabs are allegedly a delicacy, so at least they have commercial value. Fewer people seem to want to eat crawfish, but they are perfectly tasty, the small ones are just too much work.
Dunes overgrowing doesn't sound like a big problem to me, that's how soil is built
They've evolved hyper-intelligence. (Score:2)
They know how to avoid and escape the traps and are now hiding out.
They're waiting until their numbers grow large enough and then they'll come for us!
#Dooooooom!
Relief? (Score:2)
Just as soon as y'all stop voting the way you do so we can ensure relief for OTHER people as well? Cry me a river when I see the political trash that comes out of the state.
research (Score:2)
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We don't need more research. This collapse has been predicted for years. We don't need to find solutions. The solutions have been known for decades and all attempts to implement them have been vociferously, and successfully, resisted for an equal amount of time. This is the moral equivalent of driving full speed at a wall in a car with no breaks. The end result was predictable. The time where we could act to avoid the obvious consequences has passed. Instead of acting to mitigate the collision we stepped on
Climate activists trying to prove their point (Score:2)
Climate change ... really? (Score:2)
The pace is so fast do you really think that's a possibility? Really? Wouldn't disease be far more likely? Over fishing?
Bottom line: choose your own reason b/c they don't know. go with the standard hobby horses: covid, systemic racism, Trump, government taking away crab freedoms, too many guns in the crab population ... whatever.
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Climate change is a stressor on the ecologies underpinning the fisheries. One of the known consequences of climate change is a greater susceptibility to disease. (This is also true among humans. Predictions are that climate change will lead to five covid-level pandemics a year by the end of the century.) Climate change, disease, and over-fishing are combining to drive these stocks to extinction. The answer is "yes, and" not "either/or".
Major Blow? (Score:3)
Tell Major Blow that I haven't had snow crabs ever, because I am not a billionaire. The real problem is the price of normal seafood, where now you can only get sewage infested crap from places like Thailand.
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The price is actually too low. If you factor in the externalized costs that will be paid by future generations for the production of that sea food, the price should be five to ten times what it is now. The fact that such prices mean most people wouldn't be able to eat sea food is a price signal that we shouldn't be harvesting sea food in the way we are at the quantities we are.
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Factoring externalized costs...5x to 10x price .... fact....
If you believe in those numbers go ahead and create a foundation funded by some long call options on the sustainable fishing industry with a mission to do whatever you think makes sense to fix that problem. You likely could get a decent financial backing if you can prove your work.
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First, I don't have the money to do that. Very few people do. Second, there won't be a sustainable fishing industry. There won't be and unsustainable one either. There won't be a fishing industry at all. There will be a mass die off of ocean life killing around ninety percent of all ocean life and utterly collapsing the oceanic biosphere. There will be permanent red tides belching clouds of hydrogen sulfide that kills anything living within ten to twenty miles of the coast. Capitalism provides no way to avo
Finding Out (Score:2)
Welcome to the "Finding Out" portion of the systematic degradation of the biosphere. I hoped you enjoyed that whole "having bodies of water containing fish" thing because that's coming to an end.
It's a known fact that the catch limit on literally all fisheries in the world has exceed the scientifically determined sustainable catch limit for the entire history of catch limits. Catch limits are determined politically and economically, not scientifically. So, despite catch limits, we've been depleting all fis