Media Reports on Steneck’s Ecosystem Research

Boston.com, MPBN, WGME (Channel 13), WABI (Channel 5), Portland Press Herald and WLBZ (Channel 2) were among several news organizations that carried an Associated Press report on University of Maine Professor Robert Steneck’s latest research. Steneck, who works at UMaine’s Darling Marine Center, led a study that found when Maine fishermen harvested millions of pounds of sea urchins in the 1990s for the Japanese market they depleted the creatures, turning the ecosystem upside-down and creating an ideal habitat for the Jonah crab, an urchin predator. Steneck warns the urchin population might not recover unless fishery managers find ways to increase the number of fish that prey on Jonah crabs.