Ocean Acidification May Curb Numbers Of Dungeness Crab

SEATTLE — Dungeness crab are forecast to take a hit from ocean acidification driven by fossil-fuel combustion, according to a new study. Though the populations of the Dungeness crab fluctuate year by year, their overall abundance by 2063 could be about 30 percent lower, according to federal fishery biologist Issac Kaplan, a co-author of the study. “We think that there will be a moderate decline in a species that is really economically important,” Kaplan said of the Dungeness, which were valued at some $220 million during the 2013 West Coast commercial season. The study was published in Global Change Biology and had nine co-authors, most of whom work in federal fisheries research in Seattle or at the University of Washington. Scientists have found that the seawater is growing more acidic due to carbon-dioxide emissions.