Commercially Important Crabs Protection From Deadly Parasites Via Salty Water Of Estuaries

Overview

• Post By : Kumar Jeetendra


• Source: University of Southern Denmark


• Date: 21 May,2015

In recent research of University of Southern Denmark, New mysteries comes out from ocean, Scientists from University.

Defines estuaries salty water play an important role in protection of Dungeness crab from deadly parasitic warms which exerts a bad effect on one of the commercially important crab of sea coast of North America.

The Dungeness crab is one of the big sources of income for fisherman of sea coast of North America since centuries.

According to Researcher

“My research shows that the C. errans thrive on their hosts in the salty ocean, but when the crabs move to less salty water, the worms die. The low salinity of the estuaries effectively cleans the crabs from parasites”, says Paul Dunn, a postdoc at the Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark.

Estuaries offer a completely different environment than where land and sea are abruptly separated. When a river flows into an ocean it results in an area with large fluctuations in water temperatures and salinity. Some species are able to live in this ever-changing environment or move between ocean and estuary without being damaged. The Dungeness crab is one of them.

"I decided to investigate this further, and found out that the parasites cannot tolerate the low salinity in estuaries. Out in the open sea, where salinity was 30-33 ppt the parasites were fine, but when salinity fell to below 20, they began to die. While the worms die within a matter of days at salinity 10, their crab hosts can survive at salinities as low as 8 for extended periods."These lower salinities were not as big a problem for the crabs. They can survive for several days at salinities as low as 8.

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