PORTLAND, Maine — March 26, 2013 — A boom that saw Maine fishermen harvest millions of pounds of sea urchins for the lucrative Japanese market depleted the spiny sea creatures, turning the ecosystem upside-down and creating an ideal habitat for an urchin predator that has flourished, according to a new scientific study.
The urchin bonanza of the 1990s triggered an ecological chain reaction that ‘‘flipped’’ the ecosystem from one with a stable amount of kelp and Jonah crabs to one with an overabundance of kelp and crabs and a lack of urchins, the study said.
The urchin population might not recover unless fishery managers find ways to increase the number of fish that prey on Jonah crabs, whose strong numbers have been preventing the urchin population from rebounding, researchers said.
What has happened with urchins underscores the need for ecosystem-based ocean management, where regulators recognize that the rise or fall of one species can affect the rise or fall of another, said Robert Steneck, a professor at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center who led the study.
‘‘This kind of ecological interaction was the impetus for President Obama’s initiative in 2010 to move the country toward ecosystem management,’’ Steneck said. ‘‘We have been ignoring strong interactions among species for decades. This is a great example of how it’s more complicated than just assuming that by reducing fishing mortality rates on a managed species, it’s going to recover.’’
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