More than eleven billion crabs just ... vanished. What happened?

The Big Story · Dec 9, 2022 · 29m

For the first time ever, snow crab season has been cancelled. A survey of the population revealed thousands of tons of crabs, more than eleven billion animals estimates had said were on the Pacific Ocean floor, simply weren't there. The reason for their absence is a mystery, with many possible solutions—disease, migration, cannibalism and more.

In the days after the discovery however, most narratives focused on climate change's role in their absence. And while it surely played some part, what does it say about our rapidly changing world that this has become the first and simplest answer to…