For the first time in history, Alaskas Department of Fish and Game has canceled the states winter snow crab season due to a shocking plummet in the crustaceans numbers.

Between 2019 and 2021, researchers saw the largest decline weve ever seen in the snow crab population, which was very startling, department biologist Miranda Westphal told Alaska Public Media in the wake of Mondays cancellation.

The department made the decision based on data from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which conducts an annual survey of the population in the eastern Bering Sea. In just two years, the animals numbers in the area dropped by about 90% amounting to an estimated 1 billion crabs, CBS News reported .