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Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

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Re: Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

#161
post #3

Wow, those are some crazy numbers. Shocking it could happen that fast... what's next?

I'm eating as much delicious sushi grade tuna I can before it's gone.

oh, c'mon!

We don't have supervillains trying to destroy the world, all we need is rational people thinking like this to do it for us.

Re: Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

#162
post #40
post #5

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.

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. h…

Absolutely not an expert here and would love to be corrected but my poorly informed personal impression is that the whole idea of a sustainable amount of fishing and whether all species even have a number that is safe to harvest (especially given that no species exists in isolation), let alone what that number is, is on fairly shaky grounds scientifically. Meaning that a lot of this is guesswork based on too little information and "doing something is better than doing nothing" compromises with the fishing industry. If a species population has appeared to be stable for x number of years with y amount of fishing, does that mean that it's sustainable? Indefinitely? Given other changes in ecosystem and environment?

Re: Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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…

Also the solutions being pushed kind of suck for most people. We’ve had 50 years of sustainability and eco-asceticism. Denial is a perfectly fine reaction to the solutions being proposed.

Re: Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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…

The same people who get pumped up by football games and tailgaters, war epics, and 'badassery' and doing stupid but 'brave' things like shooting fireworks out your ass, are the same people who will deny anything that's 'too scary' not to.

Or attribute it to "God's will" and then still assume he'll take care of things so they can just go on ignoring the issues.

Reminds me of the cowardly lion who could talk a big game,but was inwardly afraid of everything. Even xenophobia and racism --it's ALL rooted in fear of 'others' fear of this. Politicians know damn well the power of fear, and have used it w/ great success to stay in power and keep left/right workers divided on stuff like abortion/gun rights.

Re: Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

#165
post #81

Next season on Discovery's Deadliest Catch: Sig and Wild Bill learn how to knit.

At least we still have lab grown meat, as it appears we'll soon have to get all our sustenance from labs since we'll probably be the last living creature on earth, sooner than later.

Re: Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a fisherman who practices sustainable fishing and abides by the regulations in place, and has witnessed the rebound of several species I target, I call bullshit.

By 'rebound' do you mean slightly above such catastrophic depletion that action was finally taken? Kind of a low baseline.

it's crazy how you think you know more about this than the person who wrote the comment you replied to.

Re: Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

#167
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. h…

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.

Things that are easy to imagine aren't always easy to prove

Re: Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

#168

Well, I don't like any seafood, so, on the one hand this does not affect me at all. On the other hand... this is just one more piece of data to add to the ever growing pile of how badly we are ruining the planet for any life above the level of single cell organisms. We are screwed.

Sure it does. The billions who subsist on seafood will now have to eat eggs, pork, beef. This will cause supply issues of those things. If you're a vegetarian you might be safe, though those too will be in higher demand maybe.

There's also water shortages, see the drought that's drying up the Mississippi river. Without water we'll have less and less crop yields.

We slowly had changes happen over 3 decades, then all of a sudden hit a turning point where we're breaking records yearly, maybe even monthly, and starting to get some feedback loops brewing.

The govts of the world though don't seem to think it's a big priority, lucky for them they're all ran by old people who will be dead before it really gets out of hand.

Re: Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

#169
post #5

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.

Nothing with fisheries is simple.

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.

Re: Alaska snow crab season canceled after disappearance of an estimated 1B crabs

#170
post #40
post #5

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.

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. h…

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