Of all of the aquatic animals that could be collected in a gillnet on the Kenai River, crawfish are some of the least likely. Why? Because they do not naturally occur in the Kenai River or any other river in Alaska. Unfortunately, crawfish have been collected from the lower Kenai River twice in the last four years, and both times they were leftovers from someone’s dinner.
The scientific literature indicates that, in general, crustacean wash ashore due to hypoxia (low oxygen) or to phenomena such as excess sediment in suspension and changes in water temperature.
No one really knows why algae put so much effort into making poisons. Alexandrium makes saxitoxin, and causes PSP. Another algae called Pseudo-nitzschia produces domoic acid, the source of amnesiac shellfish poisoning.
On a more helpful note, fish farts also are giving researchers and managers clues about fish distributions.
Sea star wasting disease, a type of densovirus, reduced the count of sea stars in Kachemak Bay from 180 last spring to a measly five this year.
Kachemak Bay has witnessed massive die-offs of sea stars, murres and razor clams. Whats going on?
Scotland’s only working nuclear power plant at Torness shut down in an emergency procedure this week when jellyfish clogged the sea water-cooling intake pipes at the plant. To protect marine life and avert nuclear disasters, scientists are investigating the use of drones to provide estimates of jellyfish locations, amounts, and density.
Orthione griffenis, or O. griffenis, eventually kills its host shrimp, and soon the remaining shrimp can’t find each other to reproduce, rendering a blue mud shrimp population extinct.
While many Bering Sea crab populations find themselves in freefall, Dungeness crab is breaking records in regions that used to hardly see them.
The European Green Crab are a threat to ecosystems and commercial fisheries. They uproot eelgrass beds in search of food, which serve as habitat for herring and salmon.
High levels of PSP toxins have been found in razor clams in Chignik Lagoon and blue mussels in Sand Point, Alaska, making them unsafe to eat and potentially causing paralytic shellfish poisoning, with no known cure.
The results of the Plate Watch program only indicated one invasive species in the area, Caprella mutica, otherwise known as the Japanese skeleton shrimp.
The novelty of seeing a jumbo squid in Unalaska is not wearing off: a second one washed ashore Monday night.
What has eight arms, two tentacles and washed ashore on a beach in Unalaska Monday night? A more than six-foot long squid.
Thousands of lobsters, clams, quahogs and crabs have washed up on the shore at Robinson's Island, a consequence of no sea ice and big waves.
Scientists said the critically-endangered species had previously only been found in rivers and know pearl mussels have been discovered in the Scotland Lochs.
Biologist Jackie Hilderling says four years of decline in B.C.'s sea star population is due to climate change warming local waters and making the animals susceptible to sea star-associated densovirus.
Ocean acidification threatens some of Alaska’s most lucrative crab fisheries. But there’s one ray of hope: it’s possible that crabs might be able to adapt to the changing oceans. The big question scientists are researching at Bob Foy’s lab in Kodiak is – will they have enough time?
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