July 12, 2014 — Since April 2013, researchers have been trying to assess the damage green crabs are doing and how to effectively eradicate them. In December, hundreds of researchers gathered to discuss the issue at a Green Crab Summit. In February, Gov. Paul Le- Page ordered the creation of a task force to study their impact and potential solutions.
Kohl Kanwit will never forget the tiny clicking sound she heard the first time she went to check out the green crab crisis for herself.
“It sounded like a horror movie,” said Kanwit, director of the public health bureau for the Maine Department of Marine Resources. As she crouched on the bank in Freeport for a closer look in the spring of 2013, she saw hundreds of the tiny 10-legged creatures scurrying about. “It was amazing.”
Now, public- and private-sector efforts are underway to prevent a green crab invasion from becoming a real-life horror to Maine’s $17 million soft-shell clamming industry and marine life along the Maine coast.
Green crabs prey on clams and wreak havoc on eelgrass. Although the critters, which can be anywhere from 2½ to 5 inches long, have been reported in Maine for more than a century, scientists speculate that warming ocean temperatures have allowed the crabs to multiply and move north.
Since April 2013, researchers have been trying to assess the damage green crabs are doing and how to effectively eradicate them. In December, hundreds of researchers gathered to discuss the issue at a Green Crab Summit. In February, Gov. Paul Le- Page ordered the creation of a task force to study their impact and potential solutions.