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"."

Comments

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) 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

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:Unlikely to reach Gibraltar

[rmgrotkierii]

Tell that to the Great Lakes with their problems with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamprey and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_mussel. 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.