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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Environment
Erum Salam

Billions of snow crabs in Alaska likely vanished due to warm ocean, study says

A large, pinkish-orange crab with maybe 1-foot-long claws, on a wet black plastic surface.
The years 2018 and 2019 saw record-breaking ocean temperatures, which led to a boom in snow crabs before a quick plummet. Photograph: NOAA Fisheries/AFP/Getty Images

Warmer ocean temperatures have likely caused the sudden and shocking disappearance of billions of snow crabs in Alaska, which had previously baffled scientists and environmentalists, a new study has shown.

The eastern Bering Sea snow crabs, once thought to be overfished, actually starved to death en masse because the change in water temperature “increased their caloric needs considerably”, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in the study.

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