Australia: Red crabs are in danger because of oil spills

Hundreds of thousands of red crabs are seriously threatened after an oil spill on Australia's Christmas Island, located in the Indian Ocean.

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New Scientist magazine reported that, due to rough seas, last week, the MV Tycoon cargo ship carrying the Panama flag broke sometimes bumped into the cliff in the Flying Fish area - containing the main territory of Christmas Island.

Oil spills threaten the booming season of red crabs

"We think most of the fuel on the ship has spilled into the sea," said spokesman Mal Larsen at the Australian Maritime Safety Agency - in a press release. Tycoon ship carries 140 tons of fuel oil (FO), 110,000 liters of lubricating oil and 260 tons of phosphate oil remover.

Now the biggest concern of scientists is that the incident will seriously affect the population of red crabs , with scientific name Gecarcoidea natalis , living on Christmas Island. Every December, millions of red crabs - the island's unique crabs, migrate from the tropical rainforest to spawn in the sea. In January of the following year, they made a massive migration to the mainland.

"The crabs are now blooming," said environmental scientist Nic Dunlop, of the West Perth Conservation Organization in Western Australia. "Hundreds of thousands of baby crabs are moving back to the mainland and it is bad if they come into direct contact with oil spills."

Jean-Paul Hobbs, marine biologist of the University of Western Australia, identified environmental pollutants as "toxic" and easily damaged red crab eggs and larvae. If the oil spill has not been cleaned up in time, soon the crab larvae will die.

This situation is further aggravated by the weather forecast in the Christmas Island area still continuing badly, stalling all efforts to clean up the oil spill.

In addition, the group of whale sharks gathered here is also affected, due to lack of food is red crab larvae.