Mastodawn

Knee Neart Jul 11, 2023

"utilising marginal kina for the Kinanomics project, we have the opportunity to develop a commercial incentive to remove these destructive animals from our seafloor, not only creating job opportunities for iwi and coastal communities, but also supporting regeneration of kelp forests."

Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is bullshit spin, right?

Kina have been here a while, right? I'm sure I learnt the words kina and kaimoana about the same time. [Continued below]

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/475049/kina-removed-in-marlborough-sounds-to-help-rejuvenate-reefs

Kina removed in Marlborough Sounds to help rejuvenate reefs

Four sections of kina have been removed in the Marlborough Sounds as part of a research project to rejuvenate seaweed and kelp on reefs.

RNZ

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Knee Neart Jul 11, 2023

Like, kina is framed here as a destructive organism destroying kelp forests.

Sounds like an invasive species with no established niche in an ecosystem, to use my highschool science terminology.

But it's been here longer than that.

Is there, perhaps, some sort of human activity that has affected the kelp forests not being mentioned? Or has their natural predator been overfished?

#ecology #ecosystems #kina

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quagga 🦆

@BrilleBhrealla decades back, the california coast’s kelp forests were disappearing due to over abundance of sea urchins.. from the constant fur hunting of sea otters, their main predators. i agree that this sort of thing is unlikely to be a natural occurrence? ah.. 🥲

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Knee Neart Jul 11, 2023

@quagga yeah, that's my gut response. I'm not sure that linear, 1 cause, 1 solution thinking has ever been particularly effective in ecology.

It must feel nice to be harvesting commercial amounts of beings off the sea floor if you're telling yourself and everyone else that you're making the world a better place.