By Danny Lewis, Smithsonian.com, May 9, 2016
Americans often have a reputation for being loud and brash, and apparently our lobsters are no different. According to Swedish officials, the American lobster is making its way into European waters and using its abnormally large crushing claws to muscle its cousins from across the pond out of the way.
Back in December, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management released an 89-page document detailing how the American lobster is invading its waters and taking over territory that once belonged to the somewhat-smaller European lobster. Scientists say that not only could the invaders spread new diseases to their smaller European cousins, but the two species are so genetically similar they could breed a new hybrid lobster species, William Mauldin reports for the Wall Street Journal.
“They pose several potential risks for native species, competing for space and resources, they can interbreed with local species and produce hybrid species, which we don’t know will be viable or not,” Paul Stebbing, a researcher at the United Kingdom’s Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, tells Mark Tran for The Guardian. . . .