Associated Press
LONGVIEW — Maybe most people wouldn’t be afraid of a crab the size of a shirt button.
State biologist Ron Figlar-Barnes is.
He worries that the baby European green crab he found last spring — and more than 100 larger crabs — could mean the non-native crustaceans might settle in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor.
He also worries that few people are looking for the green crabs, four years after their appearance stirred up fears of yet another threat to oyster growers and native animals.
"It’s absolutely silly for anyone not to be concerned," Figlar-Barnes said. "The green crab haven’t gone away."
A few years ago, biologists and shellfish growers were somewhat encouraged when fewer green crabs turned up in traps and oyster beds.
But Figlar-Barnes says declining vigilance and his discoveries of young green crabs suggest the door is open to the invaders.
In other parts of the world, this aggressive species has pestered native shellfish. In Willapa Bay, they may devour oysters, clams and other animals and plants, and compete with native Dungeness crabs and fish for food.
"They’re opportunistic," Figlar-Barnes said. "They’ll feed on anything they can get hold of."
If the crabs become established, they could pinch the region’s multimillion-dollar seafood industry and harm native species.
Green crabs are caught for food in Europe, but no markets have developed in the United States, though they have been on the East Coast for at least 100 years.
Dr. Sylvia Yamada, an Oregon State University zoology professor, wrote the book — "Global Invaders: The European Green Crab" — on how the crustaceans take over new territory.
She says it’s too early to know whether they’re a permanent addition in the Northwest.
"You never know which way it’s going to go," Yamada said. But "the next year will really tell whether the green crabs are going to take off."
Figlar-Barnes agrees this is "a pretty critical year."
The first wave of green crabs, probably from a California outbreak, is believed to have arrived on the Washington coast with warm El Nino ocean currents in the late 1990s.
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