Pacific Dungeness crab turns up in the Atlantic

[yuiyoshida]

There's a new face appearing on Atlantic Ocean "most wanted" posters: the Dungeness crab. Marine scientists are worried that this west coast crab could be invading East Coast waters after it was unexpectedly found off the coast of Massachusetts by a fisherman on July 19.

Lou Williams, the fisherman, took the out-of-place catch to aquaculture specialists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who sent out mug shots to other scientists around the country. They positively identified the crab as an adult male Dungeness.

Biologists worry about the appearance of exotic species, or bioinvaders, because they can stake their ground in a new ecosystem and push out native species.

The MIT scientists are particularly worried in this case because they don't know how the crab ended up so far away from home, and whether any more of its clan are lurking in the coastal waters.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/14704299/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/pacific-dungeness-crab-turns-atlantic/#.U2F6GKLNvwc


**I can almost imagine how this happened. Pesky humans !

[NightWatcher]

1. Send in Jameis Winston!!!

[Cali_Democrat]

9. LOL!

[bigwillq]

2. That damn Jameis.

[FSogol]

3. I knew I should have taken that left turn in Albuquerque

[AngryAmish]

4. Aren't these kinda delicious?

I developed a seafood allergy a decade ago. It makes me sad.

Chicagoans: are the breakfast crabs cakes at Wishbone still good? Those were the days, sitting on the curb waiting to get into Wishbone on Grand, reading the Sunday paper.

I'm old. That was almost 20 years ago.

[Luminous Animal]

6. Outrageously delicious. I like them better than lobster and there

are so many tasty ways to cook them.

[AngryAmish]

11. ok, go on...

Seeing how I can't eat them but I want to hear about it...but go very, very slow...

[Luminous Animal]

12. :)

[pinboy3niner]

14. Now you're just being shellfish. :) nt

[left on green only]

5. Poor Guy! He's Gonna Freeze His Tush Off When Winter Comes

I'd almost be willing to bet that he hitched a ride on the back of a Flying Fish.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Their natural range is from California to the Aleutian Islands

http://thisfish.info/fishery/species/dungeness-crab/

If they can live in Alaska, I think they'll bear Massachusetts.

[Retrograde]

8. And the water in their part of the Pacific is a lot colder than in the Atlantic

No warm Gulf Stream out here - that's why as far south as the San Francisco area people bundle up to go to the beach

[Brother Buzz]

10. Juxtaposition, a single Maine lobster was caught off San Francisco

Maine lobster caught, released at Farallon Islands
27 November 2013

The first Maine lobster verified off the Bay Area coast was caught by accident last week in a crab trap set by Sean Hodges of the sport fishing boat Hog Heaven.

After a photo to prove the event, Hodges released the lobster back to the sea. The lobster was found in a crab trap that had been set on the ocean floor 250 feet deep near the Farallon Islands.

The catch was first reported by longtime field scout Tim Goode, editor of NorCalFishingNews.com.

“It was a shock,” Hodges told Goode. “No other crabs in the trap. It had to weigh eight pounds.”

Sportfishing boats from Bay Area harbors are now offering crab-combo trips where they set crab pots and also fish for rockfish on the same trip.

“I have seen lobster off the Cement Ship at Aptos,” said Giancarlo Thomae, a naturalist and marine biologist in Monterey Bay. “I think people buy them alive at a restaurant aquarium, feel sorry for them and let them go. My bet is somebody bought it at Chinese restaurant in San Francisco and then let it go and it made its way out to the Farallon Islands.

“There are so few of them that unless they are grouped in one place, they won’t be able to find each other to breed.”

In El Nino years, spiny lobsters from Southern California have occasionally been caught as far north as Santa Cruz.

http://blog.sfgate.com/stienstra/2013/11/27/maine-lobster-caught-released-at-farallon-islands/

[aikoaiko]

13. Baby Gojira!

[MohRokTah]

15. 9/6/2006?????

An article that will be eight years old in a few months?

I'm thinking it didn't turn out to be a big deal. The Atlantic just wasn't an ideal environment for the Dungeness crab.