The way to understand this kind of story is to ignore the flood of recent news articles over the past few days, instead go to Google Scholar and enter something

The way to understand this kind of story is to ignore the flood of recent news articles over the past few days, instead go to Google Scholar and enter something like: alaska snow crab history warming population size trends These problems don't just pop out of nowhere and as expected, there are a fair number of studies outlining the problem over the past decade. This one seems typical: (2020) Recent shifts in northern Bering Sea snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) size structure and the potential role of climate-mediated range contraction, Fedewa et al. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967064520301284 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096706452... > "These findings suggest that the spatial extent and average temperature of snow crab distribution are likely constrained by the availability of cold water habitat in the EBS, and dramatic declines in juvenile snow crab abundance observed in 2019 may be attributed to potential direct or indirect temperature effects on survival of highly stenothermic early benthic stages of snow crab. . . . While the increase in NBS mature male biomass may suggest the potential for a commercial fishery in more northern latitudes, concurrent declines in juvenile abundance suggest caution concerning the sustainability of the stock with continued warming." This all matches decades of data and theory pointing to more rapid warming in Arctic regions than almost anywhere else due to polewards atmospheric and ocean heat transport, from thinning and decreased area of Arctic sea ice to warming subsurface waters. Northward migration of cold-water crab populations (and decrease in size) is no surprise. A bit more worrying is the long-term destabilization of the Arctic seabed methane clathrates: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jgr/2013/783969/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jgr/2013/783969/ Looks like the tipping point is now in the rear-view mirror, so get ready for the ride.