A story of crayfish in South Korea: Ontological politics of invasive species and more-than-human biosecurity

Keywords: more-than-human, crayfish, invasive species, biosecurity, ontological politics
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 21

Abstract

In this presentation, I will explore the contesting ontological politics of invasive species in South Korea. By following the politics of the environmental knowledge production process and its practices. It reveals ecological conservation science that focuses on the environmental risk assessment and offers legitimacy to invasive species elimination policy. However, in the paper, I will conduct the viewpoints from political ecology that offer different perspectives to the ‘invasive species’ problem. For that, the paper examines a case study of crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in South Korea, designated as invasive species by law in 2020. After that, crayfish were prohibited from artificial moves by human activities (trade, breed, and even personal possession) and were subject to removal on a whole national scale. On the other hand, the crayfish has placed in a different ontological position like exotic animals and ornamental beings for more than 30 years in South Korea. Fish-tanked crayfish also became subjects of elimination by law, and shared species name units of biosecurity policy revealed its limitation. To explore more detailed stories of crayfish in South Korea, I will also demonstrate the social, political, and scientific process of ecological conservation sciences projected to crayfish. Articulating critics of the current policy and knowledge of environmental biosecurity produced as ‘one-science-one-policy.’ The paper suggests 'more-than-human biosecurity' by explaining the ontological variety of crayfish’s ecological-historical context and interspecies relations with Aphanomyces astaci. By doing so, this paper not only offers alternative theoretical implement but also as for the alternative environmental policy in the Anthropocene.