The Crabs Are Gone! The Crabs Are Gone!

For real, they're canceling snow crab season in Alaska because there are no crabs

In most cases, getting rid of crabs is a good thing.

However, if you are the state of Alaska at the beginning of crab season and you have no snow crabs, it definitely is not. For the first time in history, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) is literally canceling the winter snow crab season because there are about a billion crabs missing from the Bering Strait. That's so many crabs! Crabs that I should be eating next year! With Old Bay and garlic butter!

But there are no crabs. The crabs are gone and no one knows where. Though there are some theories. Did they just move? Or commit mass suicide? Disease? Climate change?

 It's probably climate change. 

Via CBS:  

"Did they run up north to get that colder water?" asked Gabriel Prout, whose Kodiak Island fishing business relies heavily on the snow crab population. "Did they completely cross the border? Did they walk off the continental shelf on the edge there, over the Bering Sea?"

Ben Daly, a researcher with ADF&G, is investigating where the crabs have gone. He monitors the health of the state's fisheries, which produce 60% of the nation's seafood.

"Disease is one possibility," Daly told CBS News.

He also points to climate change. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Alaska is the fastest warming state in the country , and is losing billions of tons of ice each year — critical for crabs that need cold water to survive.

"Environmental conditions are changing rapidly," Daly said. "We've seen warm conditions in the Bering Sea the last couple of years, and we're seeing a response in a cold adapted species, so it's pretty obvious this is connected. It is a canary in a coal mine for other species that need cold water."

Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Miranda Westphal said on Friday that about 90 percent of the crab population had been lost since 2018. She hopes that canceling the season “will protect this portion of the population that will mate and produce more babies” and restore some of those numbers.

In addition to this being a very big deal for me, personally, it is also a very big deal for the fishermen and women whose livelihood depends on the crab season. The Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers represents about 350 crabbers, all of whom are now pretty much screwed for the year if they can't find work doing something else.

Jamie Goen, executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers told NPR reporters that they were at least hoping for a small season, adding "It's been devastating to get this news, and our fishermen are in shock and trying to figure out what's next. 'Cause we're heading in to the second year now of record low levels for our king crab stocks and our snow crab stocks in Alaska."

This should be a very big wake-up call for climate change deniers who also really like seafood. Or, you know, for anyone who finds it pretty disturbing that 90 percent of a species in an entire area has disappeared over the course of 4 years, because that really does not sound very good.

 Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .

Wonkette is independent and fully funded by readers like you. Click below to tip us!