Red king crab doing no damage to Barents Sea biofauna

Growing abundance of the red king crab stock in the Barents Sea in the recent 40 years has not changed the structure of bottom communities to the great extent as previously thought, according to Murmansk Institute of Marine Biology as reported by REGNUM.

The institute’s research conducted within the framework of the “Assessment of the impact of alien species on the structure, efficiency and biological diversity of Russian eco-systems” has disproved assumptions that red king crab introduced into in the Barents Sea by the Soviet scientists in 1960s has damaged the native bottom structure of the biofauna communities. The only thing noticed by the institute’s scientists is a decrease of the abundance of the benthophage fish while the red king crab is using the redundant resources without causing a considerable damage.