King Crabs to Rescue Florida's Reefs?

Mote Marine Laboratory scientists believe that Caribbean king crabs may be the savior of Caribbean reefs and have just opened a 6,000-square-foot Florida Coral Reef Restoration Crab Hatchery Research Center to prove so.

Florida's coral reefs are suffering from the deadly embrace of algae flourishing because of climate change and warming seas. The reefs form an essential barrier to storms and hurricanes; the increased intensity of the storms is more destructive to coral reefs, which are crucial to mitigate damage to the shore and the land beyond. Nature had a grand plan, but our carbon emissions are destroying it.

In 2021, Mote scientists, studying how crabs devour algae on coral, concluded that when compared to areas with no crabs, the density of one crab per square meter could reduce algae by 85 percent. They plan to breed up to 250,000 Caribbean king crabs yearly to roam free among the reefs and eat the algae.

Let's hope they don't all end up in crab salad at Florida's burgeoning eateries. Decades ago, someone brought a bevy of lobsters from Maine and dumped them in the waters of Washington State and Canada, expecting them to flourish. They were quickly hunted and devoured, and the ones remaining spread out so far they couldn't locate mates and reproduce. Or so the story goes.

- John Bantin