Beal quoted in Press Herald article on new, aggressive green crab variant

The Portland Press Herald quoted Brian Beal, a professor of marine ecology at the University of Maine at Machias, for an article on a new, more aggressive variant of invasive green crabs. As coastal currents carry these new crabs down into Maine waters from Nova Scotia, they pose an additional threat to soft-shell clams and eelgrass that have already been decimated by the crabs’ less aggressive relatives, the Press Herald reports. Researchers at the University of New England are studying both varieties in an attempt to learn more about them and inform possible solutions to the invasion. It is almost impossible to tell the difference between the varieties just by looking at them, the article states. But the differences in behavior are striking — a video made by the researchers shows a Maine green crab running away from a researcher’s finger, while the crab from Nova Scotia attempted to attack the camera before the researchers attempted to approach the animal themselves. Efforts have been made to trap green crabs and use them for food and other purposes, but Beal said a large-scale commercial green crab fishery in Maine has limited potential and would not be economically efficient enough for fishermen to invest their efforts. The only solution so far seems to be adaptation. “All that I am seeing says that as seawater temperatures continue to warm, we are going to see higher rates of predation simply because these organisms’ metabolism and their behavior changes with temperature,” said Beal. The Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel carried the Press Herald article.