Post #14999

Blue Crabs: Cannibal Coast. 97% of their deaths are due to attacks on each other for food Blue crabs look exactly like crabs should look. These are small and inconspicuous workers from the East Coast of the United States who do not attract much attention. And they don’t have any special features. Except for one thing - they literally hate each other and ruthlessly destroy their own species. The first two months of their life are typical for crabs: the larvae frolic in the depths of the ocean and feed on plankton, gradually gaining mass. But sooner or later they have to grow up, and the crabs sink to the bottom, where their main natural enemies are already waiting for them: older blue crabs. From a relatively peaceful and predictable life, little crabs end up in cannibal hell. Any blue crab is ready to eat its younger relative if there is at least some free space in its stomach. Young crabs themselves understand what a dangerous situation they are in. To escape, the baby runs to the shallow coast, where in the thickets of algae and sea grass you can hide from adult cannibals. But it doesn't help much. Dry statistics collected by the Smithsonian Institution show that every year the blue crabs of the Chesapeake Bay (Virginia) destroy 40-45% of their population. Think about it: 97% of all injuries and deaths are caused by larger blue crabs! Moreover, the baby that survives this nightmare will leave the shallow water and begin to oppress the next generation of crabs. The ancient sages were right when they asserted that a slave does not want to be free, he wants to have his own slaves. But this is not the main joke of nature. The fact is that an endless cycle of cannibalism is the only thing keeping the Chesapeake Bay crabs from going extinct. Since several large rivers flow into the bay, the water there is fresher than ocean water, so marine predatory fish try not to linger here. The river ones do not go down into the bay at all. So it turns out that almost no one hunts crabs here. And if not for their tendency to self-destruct, they would have long ago eaten the entire ecosystem, after which they would have died themselves. But, unfortunately or fortunately, this cruel cycle seems to be coming to an end. The more people develop the coastline, the fewer shelters the babies have, and their mortality rate continues to rise, while the overall number of crabs in the bay decreases. Which, in turn, will turn against humans, because blue crabs are a very important commercial species. The only good thing is that there is no need to worry about the species, because it has a wide range, where not everything is so deplorable. In addition, along with the ballast waters of ships, they reached Europe, and now cannibal crabs are found in the Baltic, North, Mediterranean and Black Seas. Author: Yaroslav Ilyin Единственное лицензированное Telegram-казино 🏆 ⭐️ Ежедневные раздачи до $5000 ⭐️Всегда здесь:https://t.me/gam