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00:04 Over the last few years, there's been a mass die-off of snow crabs in the Bering Sea,
00:08 just off the coast of Alaska. Researchers estimate that between just 2018 and 2021,
00:13 some 10 billion of the crabs have disappeared, meaning the species is in trouble. And now,
00:18 according to a new report by researchers with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
00:23 Administration's Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, they might finally know why.
00:27 Researchers found that in 2018, snow crab populations were reaching historic highs,
00:32 leading to a $150 million crabbing industry in Alaska. However, after marine heat waves hit
00:37 their habitats, their numbers plummeted, killing billions of them, with the Alaskan crabbing
00:42 industry only taking in $24 million in 2022. These heat waves are becoming more common as
00:48 our planet gets warmer, and it prevents typical sea ice formation. That ice has an annual melt
00:53 cycle that sends frigid meltwater to the bottom of the sea, where the crabs call home. When the
00:57 sea ice never formed during a marine warming period back in 2018, it couldn't eventually melt
01:02 and create a cold summer habitat for the crabs, which the study has found increased the metabolisms
01:07 of the previously mentioned record number of crabs, leading to too many snow crabs and too
01:12 little food, ultimately resulting in a mass die-off.
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