Alaska, United States

In recent years, it was discovered that billions of snow crabs disappeared from the ocean around Alaska, and now the scientists have claimed that they know the reason behind it. As per the scientists, the snow crabs have starved to death because of the warmer ocean temperatures.

The findings were released just days after the cancellation of the crab harvest season was announced by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for the second time in a row, citing the increasing number of missing crabs from the frigid waters of the Bering Sea.

The study, which was published by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Thursday (Oct 19), found a significant connection between the missing snow crabs, which started disappearing in 2021 as per the surveys, and recent marine heat waves in the eastern Bering Sea.

“When I received the 2021 data from the survey for the first time, my mind was just blown,” stated Cody Szuwalski, lead author of the study and fishery biologist at NOAA. “Everybody was just kind of hoping and praying that that was an error in the survey and that next year you would see more crabs,” she added.

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“And then in 2022, it was more of a resignation that this is going to be a long road,” said Szuwalski, while speaking to CNN.

Is overfishing a reason behind the disappearance of snow crabs?

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In 2022, for the first time, the US snow crab fishery was closed in Alaska. As per the catchers, overfishing has led to the population decline of snow crabs, however, “overfished” is a technical definition that fails to explain the collapse, as per the experts.

“The big take home for me from the paper, and just the whole experience in general, is that historically, fishery scientists had been very worried about overfishing — this has been our white whale, and in a lot of places we really solved that with management,” said Szuwalski. “But climate change is really throwing a wrench into our plans, our models and our management systems,” she added.

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For the study, the scientists looked into what could have led to the disappearance of the snow crabs in 2020 and ended it with two categories: the snow crabs have either moved or died.

Szuwalski said they searched north of the Bering Sea, in deeper levels of the oceans and west toward Russian waters, and “ultimately concluded that it was unlikely that the crabs moved, and that the mortality event is probably a big driver.”

In the research, it was found that population density and warmer temperatures were significantly related to higher mortality rates among grown crabs.

(With inputs from agencies)

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