Disappearance of red king crab in Kodiak still a mystery

[The Straight Story]

Disappearance of red king crab in Kodiak still a mystery
Article published on Friday, March 16th, 2007
By BRYAN MARTIN
Mirror Writer

Once the king crab capital of the world, Kodiak remains mystified at the loss of its crown.

Researchers and scientists are still probing for an explanation, but also attempting to determine if ever again there will be enough crab to harvest for bigger profits.

The king crab fishery in Kodiak was once full, with 95 million pounds of crab around 1965-66, then bottomed out about 1982-83 to less than 5,000 metric tons. Today there is nothing but a wait for the fishery to come back.
...

Among possible explanations are that the fishery was fished out, the crab habitat was somehow damaged or predators like cod, pollock or jelly fish moved in on the crab. Another explanation is that warmer temperatures have forced out the crab. Both air and water temperatures in Kodiak were colder prior to the crash.

Abundant Tanner crab and shrimp also disappeared about the same time as red king crab.

Becthol pointed out the habitat of Bering Sea waters where crab are still fished is significantly colder and different than Kodiak waters. Similar waters in Bristol Bay, Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet and the Gulf of Alaska, have all experienced crab declines.

http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=4502

[BlooInBloo]

1. AAACK!!! My crab legs! My sweet succulent crab legs!!!!

:cry: :cry: :cry:

[Wiley50]

6. I can't Afford To Eat The King Crab Anyway

Best I can do is occasionally splurge on an evening Chinese buffet that serves Snow Crab

Still damned good eating though, just smaller

[BlooInBloo]

8. Hell ya - a lil less on the yumminess, but a lot better on the ease-of-access...

A fair trade-off, imo.

[Rex]

2. Not global warming, heaven forbid we bring that up.

Actually it sounds like the greedy people fished their 'crown' into non-existence. How typical. For 'bigger' profits, no doubt.

[daveskilt]

3. a small note was however found that read - so long and thanks for all the brine shrimp?

[sandnsea]

4. The ocean is blinking red

This is really the biggest warning to me. When so many of our fisheries are depleted, I don't understand why people aren't scared stiff. Story after story about our oceans, 70% of the planet, dying. We better wake up.

[Sybil_23mist]

5. This is just another sign

Like a canary in a coal mine :(

[Drum]

7. Something else about Red King Crabs:

Giant Crabs Invade Norway

Giant crabs are invading Norway's waters—and eating almost everything in their path.

The crabs "Hoover everything off the bottom of the sea, and all the fish are disappearing," one Norwegian resident told the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph. Norway is located in northern Europe.

Red king crabs are normally found only in the Alaskan seas and the North Pacific Ocean. But in the 1960s the Soviet Union brought the crabs to the Barents Sea off northern Russia. The Soviet Union, or U.S.S.R., was an empire that ended in 1991. Russia was the biggest country in the Soviet Union.

Former Soviet leader Josef Stalin believed that the crabs would provide food for people working in the area.

-----

more at:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2004/03/giantcrab.html

[The Straight Story]

9. Let's just hope if I ever get crabs they ain't that big

OUCH! :rofl:

[Odin2005]

11. The article has to point out what the USSR was? Are we THAT ignorant?

:crazy:

[Drum]

12. It is a kid's page from National Geographic.

I googled a search for this type of crab, and this story was one of the results. I thought that the abundance of the crabs elsewhere was an interesting bit of info, even from a for-kids page.
:shrug:

[TreasonousBastard]

15. Well, at least it's an invasive species that tastes good...

and in a few years the Norwegians can fish them all out.

Look on the bright side...

[Lochloosa]

10. My Grandfather was a charter fisherman in the Gulf of Mexico

He taught me to fish. He would never take home more than we could eat. He would tell me stories of the red fish swimming by in schools that were miles long.

He is gone....so are the fish.

[SoCalDem]

16. Sad isn't it? In ONE generation we have lost so much

When I was a kid growing up on an airforce base in Panama, we would literally have the sun momentarily blocked out by "clouds" of wild parrots flying overhead..

I am afraid to go back, even though I have always wanted to, because I fear it would break my heart to see what's happened to my beloved jungle..

[TreasonousBastard]

13. Aren't these the crabs that commercia says to...

keep eating because we'll never run out of them?

[kestrel91316]

14. I just finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy on DVD and

rereading the books.

When I see all the death and destruction WE AMERICANS AND OUR INSATIABLE GREED have wrought in this world I wonder if we are not Mordor. We sure act like it a lot of the time.

:cry: