“Thousands of dead crabs have washed up along the Kent coast, with environmental experts believing the cold weather in Britain is to blame,” London’s Daily Mail reports. In an MSNBC/LiveScience report, we get the simple explanation. ’tis the snowfall on the beach that melted wot dun it:
“It’s been a phenomenon for probably a third year in a row,” Tony Child, Thanet Coast project manager, told LiveScience.
The crabs come closer to shore at this time of year, Child said, where they feed on the seaweed. In the past, environmental scientists ran tests to check for disease or other physiological problems with the crabs, coming up empty-handed. But Child said every year the die-offs have occurred after there was snow on the beaches. The meltwater causes temperatures near shore to drop, and Child said the deaths must be linked to hypothermia.
Now, get load of this quote from another person in the Daily Mail Article:
“Coastal warden Tony Sykes said: ‘We suspect that climate change and warmer weather has lured the crabs towards the shoreline.”
Warden, what are you smoking dude? Have a look at the SST’s for Britain, what were they doing, swimming towards Spain?
Note the colors around the southeast part of the U.K. – barely above freezing SST’s.
Source: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/data/sst/fields/FS_km5000.gif
Note the quote:
It’s been a phenomenon for probably a third year in a row,” Tony Child, Thanet Coast project manager, told LiveScience.
Hmmm….now what could possibly have happened in the UK during the last three winters? BBQ Summers?
Here’s the press release from the Thanet Coast Project:
Marine wildlife hit by cold weather
Around 25,000 velvet swimming crabs and marine wildlife have become the latest victim of the recent cold weather in Thanet.
Volunteer coastal wardens from the Thanet Coast Project have surveyed the coastline and reported hundreds of dead creatures washed up on the shore. Casualties have been reported from the Nayland Rock, Margate and in bays to the Kingsgate area, with further sightings between Dumpton and Ramsgate. The discovery was made following the Christmas period, following on from the recent heavy snow falls.
So this claim from coastal warden Sykes isn’t the same ridiculous claim we’ve been hearing lately, that global warming causes cold weather. Nooo… the problem here seems to be that the crabs made the mistake of believing in global warming.
Here’s the link to the Daily Mail story with the quote.
H/T to Mark Duchamp for the email.
“One Anonymous Bloke says:
January 8, 2011 at 12:05 am
I’m confused. I’ve heard that you, Anthony Watts, are the most credible scientist in history, but you’re quoting “The Daily Mail” as though it’s a science journal. My understanding is that the Daily Mail could barely be described as a newspaper, let alone a reliable source. I can’t find a link to the original interview to verify the Daily Mail’s version of events, do you have one? Sorry if this is taking up your valuable”
The BBC has it, too!
Anthony, I saw a similar article about pigeons and wasn’t there something about red-wings or something in the US falling from the sky.
oooooaaaaaah! I see omens …
Didn’t I forewarn that the eclipse on the solstice foretold dark times ahead (it is winter!) and now the sun (partially) disappeared having been eaten by the moon and woooooo …. we’ve had yet strange white stuff falling from the sky in Scotland … and illness is all over the land (pig’s flu).
Goebbels would be proud of the Global Climate Crab Disruption.
The real cause was them escaping from the highly acidic sea.
Here in the British media they (Louise Grey) are blaming climate change for the spread of disease amongst oak trees.
“More are expected to be chopped down in the coming years because the warmer, wetter conditions expected with climate change encourage the spread of the disease. ”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/8247580/Sudden-death-for-thousands-of-trees.html
Anthony put all this madness under one heading so anyone can easily link to it in the future.
“So this claim from coastal warden Sykes isn’t the same ridiculous claim we’ve been hearing lately, that global warming causes cold weather. Nooo… the problem here seems to be that the crabs made the mistake of believing in global warming.”
Not being able to tell that you are freezing to death is a sure sign of hypothermia.
glad a couple of others also wonder why?? seeing as they would be near iced -people are not taking advantage of this and eating them , such waste to let them rot or to use them for fertiliser? at best? can’t have a messy beach can we…obsessively perfect is required by councils worldwide, some councils in WA (aus) have even banned kids toys on beaches, if this happened there they’d have fits:-)
[Confusus say, ‘Man who eat animal that die unnaturally early, die unnaturally early. 8<) Robt]
The fish and wildlife is dying all over the place from the cold caused by — drum roll please … global warming. In Florida the power plants are unable to heat the discharge water up enough to save the non-native species manatees … manatee deaths are now the highest ever this past 2010, not because of boats, buts because of the cold. Seems being at the max of their range means something when the cold fronts move through Cuba … sigh.
The Florida inshore game fish species cannot survive the cold either, I assume that global warming was luring these hapless fish into the shallows so they can die of the cold. Yep, it’s getting cold again, the water temperature is right at the ‘survive point’ and dropping.
Here’s a fascinating Google map with links to news sources listing DOZENS of mass animal deaths which have occurred worldwide in the past few weeks : http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=201817256339889828327.0004991bca25af104a22b
Possible explanation is, that crabs had subscribed to MetOffice forecasts. So they were lured close to the coast by perspective of a warm winter – and then the climate change killed them!
Here is another video feature focusing on the natural wild life die-offs recently.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4488930/aflockalypse-now-animal-deaths-stump-officials/
Larry
Michael says:
“The climate that is constantly changing has always been responsible for mass die offs of species through out the ages. This is nothing new.”
So you’re saying natural climate variability explains it?☺
These mass strandings are not unusual during/after prolonged low sea temperatures and especially when combined with a day or two of strong onshore winds in winter. Even an onshore gale by itself in winter can cause spectacular mortalities of starfish, crabs, lobsters and other bottom-dwelling fauna. As a British marine shellfisheries biologist (now retired) I have seen beaches strewn with dead animals in North Wales and North Norfolk. The south-eastern coasts of England, from Norfolk to north Kent (Thanet), have the coldest sea surface temperatures in England, often around/below 5C and falling close to zero during exceptionally severe winters such as that of early 1963. That particular winter virtually killed off oyster and cockle fisheries in southern England and caused losses of intertidal and near-shore fauna as far west as southern Ireland.
Most edible crabs spend winter buried into the gravel and other sediments near to shore off Kent and eastern coasts. They become inactive for the winter. In very cold conditions they apparently are either killed in situ or are too torpid to prevent thenselves from being washed out by wave disturbances. The velvet swimming crabs are a more southerly species and, like other warmer-water fauna in southern England, cannot withstand very cold conditions.
These mass strandings are entirely natural and to be expected somewhere or other during the current winter. Such events are usually reported in the local press and fishery papers; and can stir the local TV media into momentary excitement if they can find local ‘experts’ to ascribe them to AGW or pollution.
Look – this is very serious.
If the IPCC says that the heat is killing the frogs.
Then yes, certainly.
Heat should be banned.
Oh! wait a moment.
Were you talking about CO2?
Now I’m not so sure.
We may need some CO2 later on (soft drinks and dry ice and so forth).
Oh you were talkng about cold were you?
Same thing!
Move along now.
Nothing to see.
Just a few snap frozen crabs waiting for the deep freezer.
I find it a little strange that I cannot recall seeing headlines like this back in 1963/64, a winter that this one has a long way to go before it even gets near the length and depths of, yet the crabs continue to thrive.
It’s obvious that global warming has become an intellectual crutch: why bother thinking something through scientifically, or even common-or-garden rationally, just blame in global warming – job done.
As a smalll boy I grew up on that coastline and when we had some pretty fierce winters too, not every year mind but some snow in Feb/Mar was normal: and the sea close inshore would freeze up here and there every few years.
I recall these die offs did occur back then and were sometimes reported in the local press in the odd paragraph but I don’t think the nationals ever bothered. Whereas if it was a hot summet Portuguese Man o’ War, a jellyfish, sometimes turned up from warmer southerly waters and the nationals usually reported that with dire warnings to swimmers.
But of course back then the only people inspecting the coastline regularly in winter were the county engineers responsible for the sea defences. There were casual beach users in winter from sea fishermen to ramblers and the like, not many though. Even us schoolboys did not take to the beaches until it was a lot warmer. Happy days.
But there were no wardens or such like to report these things back then, now there are and of course if they are paid to look they find. And think it some new discovery rather than something which has been going on for decades or centuries.
Bit like everything to do with the greenyweenies movement really, it can’t have been happening long before they noticed it, it has to be some new catastrophe and a man made one at that.
Kindest Regards.
we had a similar even occur in South Carolina last week.
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/01/06/Major-fish-kill-reported-in-S-Carolina/UPI-48711294351800/
thankfully the term AGW is rarely used in the South, most of that live here enjoy warm weather
maybe he’s saying that the crabs have arrived or moved closer in on the shoreline as the UK has got warmer (climate change) and that they weren’t prepared for the cold winters in the past few years.
In the weather is not climate column.
Thanks goodness that we don’t have crabs in Atlanta. We would be expecting a big kill this week. Time to run out for TP, milk, and bread for our rare toilet paper and milk sandwiches. 4-5″ with isolated 9″ is the prediction of the moment – it will change. I do wonder if the freshwater melt did not contribute to the problem. Some marine species are not very tolerant 0f water quality change, while others are far more tolerant than given credit.
Once again, I must ask, What bad thing isn’t the result of humankind? If it is too hot, we are at fault. If it is too cold, we are at fault. If it is too dry, we are at fault. If it is too wet, we are at fault. If there is a fish kill, we are at fault. If there is a wildfire, we are at fault. Please, somebody, name one bad thing that the modern scientists don’t try to blame people on other than events from outer space.
I think it would be a good idea for somebody to do a study on modern science. The way I would do it is to publish a bogus study about some adverse event and how it can be blamed on climate change. The bogus study has to look like the real thing. But the true study must be to see if the peer-review process discredits the bogus study or just lets it pass because it follow the orthodoxy. The true study will also see if liberal newspapers pick up the story and feature it. Once sufficient time has passed, then release the true study and show all the problems with modern climate science. Obviously, whoever does this study will be vilified and hated by the scientific community for turning on their own. But sometimes a sacrifice is needed to save us.
[Confusus say, ‘Man who eat animal that die unnaturally early, die unnaturally early. 8<) Robt]
Freezing to death is not dying unnaturally early. It is one of the most natural deaths there is.
However Confucius’s prohibition doesn’t seem to apply when a deer has its heart ventilated by a rather unnatural .308 – I find that curious personally.
I bet if anyone looked at the old local papers for the area (Margate say) in a year that was known to be cold in the early 20th c or even the 19th, there would be similar stories. Unfortunately society seems to have lost its ability to look to the past. thiings that were totally obvious to our forefathers are a total surprise to us.
So anyone living in Margate:
1) Find a few known heavy snowfall years in the past
2) Go to the library
3) Look at the Dec, Jan, Feb local papers for those years on microfilm
4) Dont be surprised to find stories almost identical to this
Duncan
Well, of course, anything can be blamed on ‘climate disruption’. That’s the beauty of the phrase, isn’t it?