Billions of crabs have been vanishing from the Bering Sea near Alaska since 2022. While it might seem easy to blame the vanishing on overfishing, scientists say this wasn’t actually the cause at all. Instead, it’s more likely that climate change is to blame for the crabs suddenly disappearing. Unfortunately, the news doesn’t really get much better from there, as the reason for the vanishing crabs appears to be that they starved to death.
More specifically, scientists believe that the warmer water in the Bering Sea near Alaska—something caused by continued climate change issues—caused the crabs’ metabolism to punch into turbo mode. They were then unable to keep up with their metabolic needs and starved to death.
This is, obviously, a very horrific demise, and the sad truth is that the scientists believe that the vanishing crabs were likely caused by human-driven climate change. The Bering Sea’s ecosystem has changed quite a lot over the past several decades as global temperatures have continued to rise. And while rising sea levels continue to be an issue for humans living on the coastline, warming waters are also an issue for the sea life that calls these bodies of water their home.
Marine heat waves that hit during years like 2018 and 2019 would have been especially deadly to the crabs. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported (via CNN) that the Bering Sea has been experiencing warmer, ice-free conditions more often, and when those warmer waters push in, the animals that live within the water often struggle to survive the changes, too.
And these vanishing crabs are not worthless, either. The industry surrounding them generates upwards of $227 million a year, according to a study published this week. And that means the industry will need to adapt based on the way these waters are warming—especially if global temperatures continue to rise like they have.
Additionally, as these warmer waters creep into the colder regions where the crabs call home, they fall prey to other species of sea animals moving in with the warmer waters, too. It creates a vicious cycle that we aren’t likely to find a fix for anytime soon.