7 ms·

The overfished. Simple as that. Snow crabs have been becoming smaller and smaller because the biggest ones were not living that long anymore. It happened to

The overfished. Simple as that. Snow crabs have been becoming smaller and smaller because the biggest ones were not living that long anymore. It happened to cod fisheries in eastern Canada and it is happening everywhere until it's too late.

oesexe 4y ago
COD, the fish that changed the world. Amazingly well written book. Apparently Cod used to be MUCH larger than it is today. for the same reason, they dont grow very old.
- nemo44x 4y ago
  Many fish were much larger in the not so distant past. Marlin in Caribbean used to be huge compared to todays catch. Pictures from the 1950's and earlier, you see some just massive Marlin. They're big today but nothing like how they used to be. But we have a whole lot more people on the Earth today.
  - wahern 4y ago
    > "We are eating bait and moving on to jellyfish and plankton", [University of British Columbia fisheries scientist] Pauly said. http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/30/local/la-me-ocean30jul30 http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/30/local/la-me-ocean30j... (https://web.archive.org/web/20161010003945/http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/30/local/la-me-ocean30jul30 https://web.archive.org/web/20161010003945/http://articles.l...), p3
    - disqard 4y ago
      Thank you for sharing those, esp. the one about Lyngbya majuscula blooms.
  - nickfromseattle 4y ago
    Here is an article that highlights this change. Just scroll the pictures, don't need to read the words. https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/02/05/257046530/big-fish-stories-getting-littler https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/02/05/257046530/b...
chaxor 4y ago
This likely isn't true due to the scale of disappearance of crabs. *90% of the are gone - in only 2 years* That's not just overfishing, something much worse has happened. The cod overfishing was also a very unfortunate tale, but they saw the signs and tracked them catching fire and burning to the ground the entire time, just didn't do anything about it. Here, AFAIK, they were bewildered at how this occured.
- jobu 4y ago
  Other sources I've seen are blaming the dramatic heat during the summer of 2019. It "scrambled the broader marine ecosystem" causing die-offs and migrations for many species of fish. Snow Crabs are primarily deep water scavengers so they had plenty of food that year, but have struggled since.
  - taylodl 4y ago
    Some people don't want to hear that because it's counter to their world-view. Earth isn't warming. Everything is OK. We can continue burning fossil fuels while having zero impact to the environment. Is there a word describing this mass wishful thinking?
    - bwb 4y ago
    - Tagbert 4y ago
      That mass wishful thinking is call “climate change denial”. We keep adding more and more evidence that climate change is happening. Even on a local scale we can all see significant changes in our local climate from year to year. The older among us can see this even more clearly if they chose. From what we know of the atmosphere there HAS to be heating from the rapid increase in CO2. You can stick your fingers in your ears as much as you want but it won’t prevent this from happening and at an accelerating pace.
      - junofan 4y ago
whyenot 4y ago
No, it's not that simple. The snow crab fishery is pretty highly regulated and considered to be sustainably harvested (by NOAA, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, others). As mentioned in an another article [1] from August on the recent disappearance, there were large numbers of juveniles in 2018 and 2019. Something else is going on. Overfishing certainly may play a role, but something else is likely the primary factor. 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/21/alaska-crab-climate/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/21/alaska-cr...
- insane_dreamer 4y ago
  > considered to be sustainably harvested (by NOAA, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, others) maybe they considered incorrectly, based on historical data that doesn't reflect recent conditions also possibly that regulations are being flaunted by bad actors it could seem improbable that either of those would lead to a sudden catastrophic decline, but many systems do experience a point where what had been a linear decline suddenly craters in a non-linear fashion
  - PuppyTailWags 4y ago
    In previous collapses such organizations sounded the alarm well before. Something else is happening.
    - barkingcat 4y ago
      https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/10/09/alaska-snow-crab-harvest-slashed-by-nearly-90-after-population-crash-in-a-warming-bering-sea/ https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/10/09/alaska-snow-crab-... The alarm has been sounding for at least a season, maybe even more.
      - llbeansandrice 4y ago
        By contrast cod that folks keep referencing collapsed 90% over _30 years_. An issue with a single season does not suggest that the regulations weren't strict enough. They now do need to become more strict as a reaction to the population but fishing is not the only pressure on a population and I find it difficult to believe that snow crab would be fished basically to extinction in < 700 days
melling 4y ago
Yes, “the climate is always changing” Those “alarmist”. People certainly do blame climate change when they shouldn’t, adding to the denial problem. But in this case 90% disappearing in 2 years probably isn’t overfishing.
mattpallissard 4y ago
Nothing with fisheries is simple. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/preliminary-survey-results-2022-eastern-bering-sea-crab-survey https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/preliminary-sur... Also, a lot of people are comparing this to the Canadian DFO's handling of the Cod fishery. Sorry, this is not like that. Both in time line and management style. This fishery was just shut down, it's had its numbers slashed previously as well. In the Cod situation they had their foot in the accelerator until the very end.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

oesexe 4y ago

COD, the fish that changed the world. Amazingly well written book. Apparently Cod used to be MUCH larger than it is today. for the same reason, they dont grow very old.

nemo44x 4y ago
Many fish were much larger in the not so distant past. Marlin in Caribbean used to be huge compared to todays catch. Pictures from the 1950's and earlier, you see some just massive Marlin. They're big today but nothing like how they used to be. But we have a whole lot more people on the Earth today.
- wahern 4y ago
  > "We are eating bait and moving on to jellyfish and plankton", [University of British Columbia fisheries scientist] Pauly said. http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/30/local/la-me-ocean30jul30 http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/30/local/la-me-ocean30j... (https://web.archive.org/web/20161010003945/http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/30/local/la-me-ocean30jul30 https://web.archive.org/web/20161010003945/http://articles.l...), p3
  - disqard 4y ago
    Thank you for sharing those, esp. the one about Lyngbya majuscula blooms.
- nickfromseattle 4y ago
  Here is an article that highlights this change. Just scroll the pictures, don't need to read the words. https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/02/05/257046530/big-fish-stories-getting-littler https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/02/05/257046530/b...

chaxor 4y ago

This likely isn't true due to the scale of disappearance of crabs. *90% of the are gone - in only 2 years* That's not just overfishing, something much worse has happened. The cod overfishing was also a very unfortunate tale, but they saw the signs and tracked them catching fire and burning to the ground the entire time, just didn't do anything about it. Here, AFAIK, they were bewildered at how this occured.

jobu 4y ago
Other sources I've seen are blaming the dramatic heat during the summer of 2019. It "scrambled the broader marine ecosystem" causing die-offs and migrations for many species of fish. Snow Crabs are primarily deep water scavengers so they had plenty of food that year, but have struggled since.
- taylodl 4y ago
  Some people don't want to hear that because it's counter to their world-view. Earth isn't warming. Everything is OK. We can continue burning fossil fuels while having zero impact to the environment. Is there a word describing this mass wishful thinking?
  - bwb 4y ago
  - Tagbert 4y ago
    That mass wishful thinking is call “climate change denial”. We keep adding more and more evidence that climate change is happening. Even on a local scale we can all see significant changes in our local climate from year to year. The older among us can see this even more clearly if they chose. From what we know of the atmosphere there HAS to be heating from the rapid increase in CO2. You can stick your fingers in your ears as much as you want but it won’t prevent this from happening and at an accelerating pace.
    - junofan 4y ago

whyenot 4y ago

No, it's not that simple. The snow crab fishery is pretty highly regulated and considered to be sustainably harvested (by NOAA, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, others). As mentioned in an another article [1] from August on the recent disappearance, there were large numbers of juveniles in 2018 and 2019. Something else is going on. Overfishing certainly may play a role, but something else is likely the primary factor. 1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/21/alaska-crab-climate/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/21/alaska-cr...

insane_dreamer 4y ago
> considered to be sustainably harvested (by NOAA, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, others) maybe they considered incorrectly, based on historical data that doesn't reflect recent conditions also possibly that regulations are being flaunted by bad actors it could seem improbable that either of those would lead to a sudden catastrophic decline, but many systems do experience a point where what had been a linear decline suddenly craters in a non-linear fashion
- PuppyTailWags 4y ago
  In previous collapses such organizations sounded the alarm well before. Something else is happening.
  - barkingcat 4y ago
    https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/10/09/alaska-snow-crab-harvest-slashed-by-nearly-90-after-population-crash-in-a-warming-bering-sea/ https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/10/09/alaska-snow-crab-... The alarm has been sounding for at least a season, maybe even more.
    - llbeansandrice 4y ago
      By contrast cod that folks keep referencing collapsed 90% over _30 years_. An issue with a single season does not suggest that the regulations weren't strict enough. They now do need to become more strict as a reaction to the population but fishing is not the only pressure on a population and I find it difficult to believe that snow crab would be fished basically to extinction in < 700 days

melling 4y ago

Yes, “the climate is always changing” Those “alarmist”. People certainly do blame climate change when they shouldn’t, adding to the denial problem. But in this case 90% disappearing in 2 years probably isn’t overfishing.

mattpallissard 4y ago

Nothing with fisheries is simple. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/preliminary-survey-results-2022-eastern-bering-sea-crab-survey https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/preliminary-sur... Also, a lot of people are comparing this to the Canadian DFO's handling of the Cod fishery. Sorry, this is not like that. Both in time line and management style. This fishery was just shut down, it's had its numbers slashed previously as well. In the Cod situation they had their foot in the accelerator until the very end.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]