estuary

A successful experiment that turned out to be a failure: lessons from eradicating European Green Crabs

The European green crab wreaks havoc in California estuaries by damaging eelgrass beds, preying upon native species, and competing with other invertebrates for space. In 2009, UC Davis faculty member and EERREC trainer Ted Grosholz and colleagues began an intensive four-year eradication campaign that resulted in removal of 90% of the green crabs in the study area. However, a year later, the population rebounded to nearly triple the pre-eradication population size.