Millions of King Crabs Turn Sea to Desert

Reporter writes "Russian biologist, Yuri Illarionovich Orlov, succeeded where Stalin failed by implanting the red king crabs into the Barents Sea. Except now, 40 years later, he's getting worried. Why? The giant crabs are clawing their way along the bottom of the Barents Sea are spreading like wildfire along the northern coasts of Russia and Norway and will continue to spread as far as Gibraltar, the southern tip of the European continent. How come? One female crab can lay 500,000 eggs at a time, of which one or two percent will become crabs. The kicker is that the species is protected by diplomatic accords between Norway and Russia, so fishing quotas are in place. From the article: "The Kamchatka crab, also known as the Alaskan or red king crab, was introduced into the Barents by the Soviets in the 1960s — some 30 years after a first, failed attempt by Stalin — in a bid to bolster Russia's food supplies. ... The crabs weigh up to 12 kilograms (26 pounds) and measure up to two meters (6.5 feet) from pincher to pincher. While they remain far from Europe's tourist beaches for the time being, their impact on the environment is already a major cause for concern in the Arctic"."

Re:The solution

[hazem]

I seem to recall an article on NPR once about the state of Louisianna issuing free cookbooks for cooking nutria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutria [wikipedia.org]) because they were breeding so fast. They resemble a beaver with a rat's tail.

The best I can find about it is: http://www.nutria.com/site9.php [nutria.com]

Re:Unlikely to reach Gibraltar

[tancque]

They reproduce quite fast, so they only need a short time to adapt to the higher temperature via natural selection. And as the sea-bed will go to waste, the presure to move south will increase, promoting adaptation. It will be intresting to follow the process.

Re:Unlikely to reach Gibraltar

[moosesocks]

Tell that to Australia.

Australia is living proof that these doomsday population explosions CAN AND DO HAPPEN.

Just because it hasn't happened yet in the Black Sea doesn't mean it won't. Such logic is dangerous, and needs to be taken with a *huge* grain of salt.

It's better to err on the side of caution. If you do so, the worst thing that could happen is that the crabs get fished into extinction in the region, and we end up being no worse off than when we started.

Re:Always a bad idea

[Like2Byte]

Let's talk about the solution the Aussies took to rid themselves of the rabbits - Biological Warfare.

The decision to use rodent specific biological warfare (rabbit specific viruses and diseases) is debatable. However, one thing is certain - the rabbits and the viruses/diseases were all "contained" within the continent of Australia.

Using biological warfare against these crabs would be a very bad idea. Oceanic currents would easily carry any bacteria/virus/agent all over the oceans of the world. Non-invasive, non-targetted species would be affected and potentially decimated by, once again, 'man playing God.'

I've got to agree with the first significant post on this thread: http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=191060 &cid=15711090 [slashdot.org].

If countries were to lift quotas in certain regions for a while we could fish them to extinction in areas the crabs don't belong. Then there's the bonus of eating all that delicious crab meat!

Re:Unlikely to reach Gibraltar

[rmgrotkierii]

Tell that to the Great Lakes with their problems with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamprey [wikipedia.org] and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_mussel [wikipedia.org]. Really wish they would die off. And I wouldn't want to drink from the Great Lakes either, especially from Lake Ontario - the open-air sewer for Rochester and Toronto. Though they are trying to clean the lakes up.

Re:Unlikely to reach Gibraltar

[brewer13210]

Would you please tell this story to the Japanese beetles chewing my raspberries and roses down to nothing? Here in the North-East US there seems to be a never-ending supply of those litter buggers...

Todd

Re:Zebra mussels in the Great Lakes

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I had heard that the zebral mussel problem had tapered off somewhat, at least in Lake Ontario. The mussels filter plankton for nutrition, which helped to clarify the water, and the algae created by the mussels provided food for the local fish, and the growth of the mussel population plateaued, and fish species that were struggling are now doing reasonably well.

Nature will always find a way to right what's wrong. It takes time, and we might not like the results, but it does get fixed.

However, that being said, I don't have a link that backs up what I heard, so take it or leave it as you will :)

Re:Zebra mussels in the Great Lakes

[Solder Fumes]

I'd agree with you, the first couple winters of the mussel invasion of Green Bay we had massive beaches (6 feet high drifts for 30 feet out) of dead and rotting mussels. But before that we had a lot of big freshwater clams...which are now gone. To me it looks like the mussels killed off the native clams, then died down to a level equivalent to the original clams somehow, either by body volume or nutrition requirements. The mussels are still there and will cut your feet if you swim barefoot. The water is also much clearer and the familiar giant mats of green muck are gone. Fish still seem to be around, but I never fished and don't know if it's worse. Overall it did improve the bay for boating and shore activities...it used to be a browny-green opaque soup but now it's sparkling blue.