UAB expert: King crabs on march in Antarctic pose threat to other creatures potentially harboring cures (video)

on April 15, 2011 at 1:22 PM, updated April 15, 2011 at 1:38 PM
James McClintock in Antarctic.JPGView full sizeUAB marine biologist James McClintock said the king crab invasion could affect species that offer promise in treating skin cancer and influenza. (Special/The University of Alabama at Birmingham)

An army of king crabs that live 6,000 to 9,000 feet deep in the ocean is marching up the un­derwater slope toward the continental shelf of Antarctica. They appear to be invaders that could threaten the unique Antarctic clams, snails and brittle stars that UAB marine biolog­ist and polar researcher James McClintock has studied for 28 years.


If that happens, there's a potential human cost, McClintock said. In its Antarctic research, McClintock's research team has found marine species that produce compounds that are ac­tive against skin cancer or influenza. The University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher is helping analyze photographic proof of the crab invasion -- 120,000 photographs taken 6 to 8 feet above the bottom of the ocean over the winter, which was summer in Antarctica, by a research team co-led by McClintock and Rich Aronson, a paleoecologist at the Florida Institute of Technology. They hope to publish a research paper on the data within a year.

The photos were shot as a research vessel and an icebreaker made eight runs from the shelf out down the slope, towing an unmanned submersible behind them. The sub took a photo every several seconds with a 15-foot-wide view, while up above the ships faced sometimes rough seas, thick ice packs and feeding whales.

Each run went from about 1,200 feet deep out to 4,000 feet deep, and the distance photographed was more than 60 miles. The photos have shown hundreds and hundreds of king crabs.







The crabs are South American species that have lived in very deep waters, surrounding Antarctica, for millions of years. They are about 1 foot across.

McClintock is writing a popular-science book about Antarctic research and how climate change appears to be changing the Antarctic Peninsula.

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