The Sea Life is Never the Same

Antarctic sea shelves are diverse,

With worms and seastars worth acclaim;

Conditions are not too adverse,

The sea life is never the same.

 

But as temperatures start to rise,

The cold barrier becomes lame;

From the slopes new creatures arise,

The sea life is never the same.

 

Below nought point four degrees C,

The King Crab will die from cold pain;

But with warming waves it is free,

The sea life is never the same.

 

And if they got on to the shelves,

They would look for new lands to reign

And new subjects for their royal selves;

The sea life is never the same.

 

Once there they would unleash their hell

They’d kill and they’d butcher and maim

All creatures with a weakened shell;

The sea life is never the same.

 

For seastars and worms cannot cope

With royalty who wish to reclaim

The lands up the way from their slope,

The sea life is never the same.

 

Their soft skeletons are too weak

Now all they can do is exclaim:

“Our outlook is getting quite bleak,

The sea life is never the same.”

 

This is a Kyrielle, written about a piece of recent research that has shown how rising sea temperatures will mean that king crabs can survive in climates that were previously too cold for them. Because other creatures in these regions have evolved without the king crabs as local predators, if the crabs moved in they could radically restructure the ecosystem.