May 27, 2013 — Green crabs — a hungry, multiplying army of them — present an impending crisis for clammers and their multimillion-dollar fishery.
"They're consuming everything in the environment, even plants," said Chad Coffin, president of the Maine Clammers Association, whose group is preparing an all-out offensive against the species.
"We may be facing the end of the commercially viable soft-shell (clam) population," he said. "I think it is dire."
Green crabs have been seen along southern Maine's coast since 1904, but a recent confluence of mild winters and steadily warming waters has helped them thrive.
Clammers who have raked the mud flats for years say green crabs are quickly chewing through the clam beds, devouring the millimeters-wide baby clams known as "spat," the foundation of future years' harvests.
Scientists have by no means forgotten the crab, but academic funding to examine its effects or monitor its population is practically nil, said Brian Beal, the marine ecologist at the University of Maine who specializes in shellfish.
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald