Alaska cancels snow crab season over population decline

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/16/alaska-snow-crab-season-canelled-population-decline

By Maya Yang, The Guardian. 

Excerpt: ...The causes of the population collapse are being researched but likely include increased predation and stresses from warmer water, which the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believes may have prompted the crabs to shift away from coasts. The fall Bristol Bay red king crab harvest will not happen. The winter harvest of smaller snow crab has also been cancelled for the first time. “In the Bering Sea, Alaska pollock, snow crab, and Pacific halibut have generally shifted away from the coast since the early 1980s … They have also moved northward by an average of 19 miles,” the federal agency said. ...“These are truly unprecedented and troubling times for Alaska’s iconic crab fisheries and for the hard-working fishermen and communities that depend on them,” said Jamie Goen, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, a trade association. See also New York Times article.… For GSS Losing Biodiversity chapter 7.

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