The plummeting population of snow crabs off of Alaska’s shores shocked fishermen and scientists alike in 2022. Now, scientists believe they have more evidence for a bleak explanation about the species dying by the billions.
CNN reports that the latest studies reveal climate change led to the crabs massive death toll via starvation — something that scientists put forward as a cause in 2023.
However, the new study show that the Bering Sea’s entire ecosystem is dramatically changing, with large portions of it becoming warmer and “literally becoming less Arctic,” according to CNN.
Snow crabs thrive in extremely cold conditions, and while they can survive in warmer waters, the increased temperatures in turn led to an increase in the crabs’ metabolism.
Without enough food available, these conditions led to massive numbers of deaths through starvation. Surveys conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimate that the snow crab population dropped by nearly 10 billion between 2018 and 2022.
The sale of snow crabs generate up to $227 million a year, according to the new study. State officials in 2022 canceled the harvest of the crabs in hopes to save their dwindling numbers.
The latest NOAA study suggests that warming waters and disappearing sea ice will have similar detrimental effects to other species normally found in these waters, including the red king crab and sea lions.
The study found that ice-free conditions in the southeast Bering Sea were 200 times more likely today than before humans began using planet-warming fossil fuels.
A previous study from 2022 found that the Arctic has warmed much more rapidly than the rest of the world in recent decades.