| Title | Status of the European Green Crab, Carcinus maenas, in Oregon and Washington Coastal Estuaries in 2018 |
| Publication Type | Report |
| Year of Publication | 2019 |
| Authors | Yamada, Sylvia Behrens, Shon Schooler, Bree Yednock, Julia Indivero, Christopher Carlson, Joel A. Prickett, and Andrea Randall |
| Pagination | 30 p. |
| Institution | Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. Aquatic Nuisance Species Project |
| City | Portland, Or. |
| Call Number | OSU Libraries: Digital Open Access |
| Keywords | Alsea Bay, aquatic invertebrates, Coos Bay, Coquille River estuary, crustaceans, El Niño, European green crab = Carcinus maenas, introduced species, Nehalem Bay, Netarts Bay, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, population count, Tillamook Bay, Yaquina Bay |
| Notes | The invasive European green crab is a voracious predator of bivalve molluscs, small crustaceans and other organisms. It has been present in Oregon since the late 1990s. The population grows when winter waters are warm, as they are during El Niños. “After the arrival of a strong year class in 1998, significant recruitment to the populations occurred only in2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Warm winter water temperatures, high Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and Multivariate ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) Indices, and a high abundance of southern copepods are all correlated with strong year classes and vice versa. . . Prior to 2015, green crabs were too rare to exert measurable effects on the native benthic community and on shellfish culture in Oregon and Washington. Following the recent strong El Niño, however, we documented the arrival of four strong year classes in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Average catch rates over the last four years steadily increased from 0.5 to 0.8 to 2.2 and to 3.2 crabs per trap. The catches in the last 2 years are much higher than in any of the previous years, including 1998. Since green crabs live for 6 years, these four consecutive year classes will produce larvae until 2024..” (from the Executive Summary) Coos Bay, in particular, has experienced shocking growth of this population, going from 9 crabs captured in 2002 to 1,280 crabs captured in 2018. This report is accompanied by a dataset, available at: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/datasets/tt44pt057 |
| URL | https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/technical_reports/vt150q47j |
