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THE ANSWER TO INVASIVE CRABS? EAT THEM.

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

In today’s Thunder Supermoon newsletter, we discover why Maine wants you to eat an invasive crab, examine what makes NASA’s latest space images so sublime, find seven legendary women warriors … and show the beautiful up-close world of insects.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN SKERRY

If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em.

Green crabs, non-native and fierce, are taking over the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine, munching on native soft-shell clams and blue mussels. They also destroy the roots of seagrass.

Now conservationists are working with area chefs to capture and cook them, Nat Geo reports. In Venice, where green crabs have been on the menu for hundreds of years, they sell for $40 a pound. Why not Maine? After all, it has a great culture of eating local.

Read the full story here.

(Pictured at top, Nat Geo Explorer Brian Skerry shows Mike Masi, a former high school biology teacher, sorting through green crabs. Above, a green crab gets its close-up.)

Related: Dazzling photos show horseshoe crabs flourishing in protected areas

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STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

IMAGE BY NASA, ESA, CSA, AND STSCI

Sublime: the most detailed images from space (pictured above, the Carina Nebula)

7 legendary ‘warrior women’ who have fought alongside—or against—men

Up-close (and beautiful) images of insects

Which has a stronger bite: hammerheads or tiger sharks?

See how drones are giving researchers new views of sharks

Test your knowledge: How well do you know sharks?

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPH BY ELI MARTINEZ, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Shark scientists unite: It was an attack on a Black birding enthusiast that led to a group of shark scientists of color getting together. Biologist and marine scientist Carlee Jackson (above right, with a Nat Geo cameraman and a curious hammerhead) remembers thinking, “I’m not the only one.” Another scientist, Jasmin Graham, wrote: “I didn’t know how bad I needed a community until I had one.” The group is working to help others of color enter the field, Nat Geo reports.

Related: Pop culture has done sharks no favors

SHARK EXPLORERS

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY @PAOLOVERZONE

Next in space: This is the inside of a new module for Orion, the American crewed spacecraft for NASA's Artemis program. The module will provide electricity, water, and oxygen as well as temperature and course controls, says a post on our Instagram page. The crewed Artemis III mission planned for 2025 aims to land the first woman and next man on the moon, Nat Geo reports.

THE 1ST WOMAN ON THE MOON?

THE NIGHT SKIES

ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW FAZEKAS

The Thunder Supermoon: Tonight’s full moon is even bigger than usual. Known as the Thunder Moon for the frequent thunderstorms across North America this time of year, July’s full “supermoon” comes as the moon is at its closest point to Earth. For sky watchers it looks about 6 percent larger and 15 percent brighter than an average full moon—and its proximity to East can cause higher-than-normal tides, too. By late night Thursday and Friday look for the moon to be waning gibbous phase and gliding past the ringed-planet Saturn. Then near midnight on Monday, the moon will rise in tandem with Jupiter in the east, swimming with the celestial fishes in the Pisces constellation. — Andrew Fazekas

WHAT IS A SUPERMOON?

IN A FEW WORDS

My female peers and I may have been trailblazers in field biology, but we bruised ourselves on a glass ceiling every time we reached beyond what was expected, so much so that I came to anticipate—and even worse, tolerate—the bruise.

Nat Geo Explorer who inspires mobility-limited students to train for careers in field biology

From: A scientist’s life in the treetops

LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIC BARD, CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES

Summertime: Tadpoles in the creek. Women sunning themselves with metallic reflectors. Those are the memories that Nina Strochlic’s mom carries of Catskills summers decades ago. These days, the big resorts in the upstate New York region are gone, but Nat Geo’s Strochlic—and her mom—discover that a revival of sorts is under way. (Pictured above, Tony Leone’s resort in the Catskills, circa 1960.)

GOING UP THE COUNTRY

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Heather Kim, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Have an idea for us? An experience eating green crabs? We'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Miss yesterday’s newsletter? It’s here.

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