October 20, 2022 — Climate change is a prime suspect in a mass die-off of Alaska’s snow crabs, experts say, after the state took the unprecedented step of canceling their harvest this season to save the species.
According to an annual survey of the Bering Sea floor carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, estimates for the crustaceans’ total numbers fell to about 1.9 billion in 2022, down from 11.7 billion in 2018, or a reduction of about 84 percent.
For the first time ever, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the Bering Sea snow crab season will remain closed for 2022-23, saying in a statement efforts must turn to “conservation and rebuilding given the condition of the stock.”
The species is also found in the more northward Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, but they do not grow to fishable sizes there.
Erin Fedewa, a marine biologist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, told AFP the shocking numbers seen today were the result of heatwaves in 2018 and 2019.
The “cold water habitat that they need was virtually absent, which suggests that temperature is really the key culprit in this population decline,” she said.
Historically an abundant resource in the Bering Sea, their loss is considered a bellwether of ecological disruption.
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