14 DAY TRIAL // More often than not, scientific studies concerning the impact of global warming and overfishing on marine biodiversity are overlooked by the general public, simply because some words scribbled down on a piece of paper hardly seem to have anything in common with the real world.
Still, this year's Christmas is bound to force Spain's residents into suddenly becoming aware of how, as researchers have pointed out, overfishing and global warming translate into less fish and seafood being available for human consumption.
Three Hugger explains that, as of recently, the octopus population in Galicia has diminished to a considerable extent, and that the constant rise of local seawater temperature is most likely what led to this decline.
As well as this, it is quite likely that overfishing has had a say in this matter. This means that, for this year's Christmas menu, there will be fewer octopuses to go around.
However, the Spanish people can feast on spider crabs all they want, seeing how this particular species witnessed an unexpected boost in its overall headcount.
According to the same source, this is due to the fact that the spider crabs' natural predators are the octopuses, which feed on both adult specimens and on larvae.
Therefore, once the cephalopods become scarce, it is only natural that the spider crabs' population would increase.
Although, speaking strictly from an environmental standpoint, this decline in Galicia's octopus population is anything except good news, the Spanish people might in fact feel the need to celebrate the new make-up of their marine ecosystems.
This is because, up until now, spider crab was considered to be a delicacy and those wishing to feast on it had to pay heavy money.
However, now that there are plenty of spider crabs in the sea, it is to be expected that almost everybody will be able to afford having a taste of this marine creature.