A volunteer working for a Canadian researcher Dave Delaney of McGill University just found a 22 mm female Asian shorecrab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus) on the north shore of Schoodic Peninsula, (presumably Gouldsboro.
This is unfortunate news. Now the ASC has colonized the southern (Isle au Haut) and northern extents of Acadia National Park. Even more alarming, the found organism was a gravid female with only a few eggs remaining.
This is the furthest north that the lobster-threatening invasive crab has been confirmed.
The staff of Acadia National Park, especially Jim McKenna and David Manski, have been assisting in the crab-watch.
This crab has had impacts in more southern Atlantic states. (massive population growth in the intertidal, crowding out other crustaceans.)
The strategy the Canadian resaerch calls for: start a trapping program throughout Acadia and the rest of Maine to control for the invader. The invader green crab now has an official trapping fishery with a commercial license. )
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