In 2025, Trawlers Suddenly Started Pulling Up Rare Hybrid Crabs in Record Numbers in The Bering Sea. Now We Know Why - ScienceAlert
A marine heatwave in the Bering Sea between 2018 and 2019 caused a collapse in snow crab populations, leading to an unexpected surge in hybrid crab numbers. Researchers have linked these ecological shifts directly to climate change and rising ocean temperatures.
Why it matters
Understanding the impact of climate change on commercial fisheries is vital for economic stability and environmental conservation efforts.
A population of once-rare hybrid crabs has surged to record numbers, following a marine heatwave that hit the Bering Sea in 2018.
This dramatic increase in hybrid crabs is not something marine scientists had factored into their plans for managing this decimated fishery, but now they've worked out the likely cause.
Their results are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
Almost every year since 1982, researchers at NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center have trawled the bottom of the eastern Bering Sea to check the state of the ecosystem.
NOAA is especially interested in keeping track of the commercially valuable species – worth hundreds of millions of US dollars each year – that call this sea home.
When a marine heatwave rolled across the Bering Sea in 2018-2019, it set off one of the most significant marine mass mortality events on record.
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