Warming waters cited as “key culprit” in mass die-off of Alaska snow crabs

alaska snow crab history warming population size trends

These problems don't just pop out of nowhere and as expected, there are a fair number of studies outlining the problem over the past decade. This one seems typical:

(2020) Recent shifts in northern Bering Sea snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) size structure and the potential role of climate-mediated range contraction, Fedewa et al.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096706452...

> "These findings suggest that the spatial extent and average temperature of snow crab distribution are likely constrained by the availability of cold water habitat in the EBS, and dramatic declines in juvenile snow crab abundance observed in 2019 may be attributed to potential direct or indirect temperature effects on survival of highly stenothermic early benthic stages of snow crab. . . . While the increase in NBS mature male biomass may suggest the potential for a commercial fishery in more northern latitudes, concurrent declines in juvenile abundance suggest caution concerning the sustainability of the stock with continued warming."

This all matches decades of data and theory pointing to more rapid warming in Arctic regions than almost anywhere else due to polewards atmospheric and ocean heat transport, from thinning and decreased area of Arctic sea ice to warming subsurface waters. Northward migration of cold-water crab populations (and decrease in size) is no surprise. A bit more worrying is the long-term destabilization of the Arctic seabed methane clathrates:

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jgr/2013/783969/

Looks like the tipping point is now in the rear-view mirror, so get ready for the ride.

But it's surely a combination of problems whose common source is the impact of 8 billion of humans, most of them with a lifestyle dramatically over polluting

It seems to have in earlier stage testing helped reinvigorate salmon populations in earlier testing around Alaska while simultaneously seeming like a cheap way to capture CO2. I wonder if something similar might also help here.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/alaskan-snow-crab-fishery-clos...