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An army of furious Canadian crabs stormed the shores of Maine and besieged local marine life.
Sounds a little dramatic?
You have never encountered green crab.
This ultra-aggressive crustacean, dubbed the "cockroach of the sea" for its ability to thrive in extreme conditions, has a rap sheet from the coast of Nova Scotia.
After threatening the Canadian fishing industry, they are now raining hell on Maine's coastal ecosystem.
Although their main target seems to be the soft-shelled clam population in the area, they also nibble on acres of eelgrass, a native flowering plant that harbors and feeds underwater life.
In fact, during a controlled study, researchers from the University of New England have detached green crabs in a meadow of eelgrass. The resulting carnage, they say, conjured up images of Edward Scissorhands mowing across blades of grass.
"What we're seeing is this level of insane aggression," said Markus Frederich, a professor at the University of New England, at the Associated Press.
Although green crabs, an invasive species, have long since become beachheads in the United States, these Canadian counterparts appear to have serious anger issues.
Indeed, even scientists are shaken by rabies.
In an email sent to the Associated Press, University of New England researcher Louis Logan discusses the difficulties of labeling Canadian green crabs for the study. Five feet away, the animals are already shaking his forceps.
"Every time I went to get one, they came to take me instead," he wrote, adding that one of the crabs had even been thrown out of the way. water to take it.
The Newfoundland government, no stranger to these wild crustaceans, has published an illustrated field guide entitled "The Green Crab Invasion". (Photo: Newfoundland Fishery and Land Resources)
So, why are green crabs so angry?
After all, they are Canadian – a nation renowned for its polite, easygoing, intelligent, funny, and, of course, humble.
Maybe it has something to do with their particular lineage. Canadian green crabs are a hybrid, mixing genes from their crustacean cousins in the eastern United States and northern Europe. They are likely newcomers to Canadian waters as well, with the first green puncture discovered in 2007. With few natural enemies, their population has since exploded. Scarcely citizens at home, green schoolchildren have been accused of looting the already precarious lobster and scallop industries of Newfoundland.
"They were born ferocious," said Cynthia McKenzie, a scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, at CBC News at the time.
Indeed, the threat of green crab has even prompted the Government of Newfoundland to publish an illustrated guide to identify – and report – authorities.
And it was more than a year ago. Since then, these muscular marauders have moved to Nova Scotia and now they have Maine in their grip.
Related to MNN:
Angry Canadian crabs invading the Maine coast
Canadian hyper-aggressive green crabs are wreaking havoc on the ecosystems of the east coast.
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