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I don't know much about snow crab but Dungeness and various oysters in the Pacific Northwest US are threatened by rising ocean acidity caused by increased CO2.
by hedgehog 4y ago
I don't know much about snow crab but Dungeness and various oysters in the Pacific Northwest US are threatened by rising ocean acidity caused by increased CO2. Warmer water is also allowing green crabs to take hold. Farther south urchins have killed off a lot of kelp forest in a way that seems not to self-correct. Easy to imagine there are similar problems all over the ocean.
- rileyphone 4y agoAt least the urchin problem is caused, in part, by the mysterious sea star wasting disease - a disbiosis of their microbial layer that leads to rapid death. Sea stars are the natural predators of the urchins, and with their disappearance, the urchins flourish and take down the kelp.
- steelframe 4y ago> Sea stars are the natural predators of the urchins, and with their disappearance, the urchins flourish and take down the kelp. No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the urchins.
- soperj 4y agoSea urchins are a problem everywhere in the pacific, and that's because their main predator (sea otters) were nearly wiped out.
- swhalen 4y agoI think it's just the western coast of North America that has this problem, rather than the entire Pacific. For example in New Zealand, which is in the Pacific, there were never any sea otters. Urchins, regarded locally as a delicacy, are not particularly abundant.
- greggsy 4y agoCrown-of-thorns starfish, on the other hand, are a very serious problem in Australia
- kfrzcode 4y agoThings that are easy to imagine aren't always easy to prove