Interesting story on how Florida is training a 250,000-strong Caribbean crab army. The crabs are supposed to eat the micro algae that’s smothering the dying coral reefs, but first the crabs must be trained to avoid predators. Here’s where Florida school children enter the mix.
No mention of what the crabs eat once they’re gone trough the micro algae.
intercst
Maybe they become dinner
Mike
By the way, it’s macro algae, also known as seaweed. They’ll keep growing and will establish a new prey/predator equilibrium with fewer algae.
DB2
Wait, I thought seaweed was good for the environment (C02 reduction)?
My prediction: The crabs get consumed at an astounding rate by predators who find the crabs docile, confused and unable to comprehend they have been invited to dinner.
Maybe enough will make it through the breeding cycle to spawn zooplankton in numbers sufficient to enable the NEXT generation to survive through natural environmental equilibrium.
If past track records hold true, the balance of crabs left after this cycle will only be slightly higher than before we started this charade.
Local restaurants should gear up for bumper crops of calamari, octopus and ray. Maybe they can serve a side of sargassum?
@intercst every member of every ecosystem reaches an equilibrium based on food and predation. If the crabs run out of algae (unlikely, since it grows back) they may eat other vegetarian food or starve. But they won’t damage fish or corals.
Wendy