More than 11 billion crabs have mysteriously vanished. What happened?

For the first time ever, snow crab season has been cancelled.

A survey of the population revealed thousands of tons of crabs, more than eleven billion animals estimates had said were on the Pacific Ocean floor, simply weren’t there. The reason for their absence is a mystery, with many possible explanations — disease, migration, cannibalism and more.

Spencer Roberts is a science and ecology journalist who wrote about the missing snow crabs for Nautilus. He joined The Big Story to break down the main theories behind the vanishing crustaceans and the vested interests who may want to see climate change take the blame over simple human error.

“To say that the fishery collapsed because of management decisions, because of over-fishing, means that, according to the law, there’s no funding to compensate these fishermen,” he said.

So what can previous collapses in the marine life population tell us about this one? How can we more effectively monitor what’s actually happening beneath the water’s surface? And will we ever get a definitive answer to what happened to these animals?