(upbeat music) - I'm Starla Sampaco in the Crosscut KCTS 9 newsroom.

Many worry that Alaskan waters will no longer support commercial crab fishing, as the Alaskan snow crab population plummets in the Bering Sea.

In the summer of 2018, the annual Bering Sea trawl survey estimated over 11.7 billion snow crab.

Just four years later, the total population fell to less than 2 billion.

Ice controls a crucial component of the ecosystem.

When ice melts in the summer, baby snow crab hide from predators in the cold water that pools on the sea floor.

As the seasonal ice cover shrinks due to climate change, juvenile crab become vulnerable to predators like cod.

Many crabbers are finding it increasingly difficult to survive in an industry that once sustained their families For decades.

Some have followed the money into pollock and other fishing industries.

I'm Starla Sampaco.

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