Paper short abstract:

This talk explores border regimes, invasive species and thalassopolitics in the context of the Med Sea and Lessepsian migrants - marine species from the Suez Canal. What are these migrants legally, politically and conceptually? What are the regimes that render them threats, resources or "nature"?

Paper long abstract:

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 shortened the sea route from Europe to India, accelerated humans and goods mobility, and the colonization of East Africa. A less studied effect of the Suez Canal is Lessepsian Migration, a term denoting a northward mobility pattern of marine species through the Suez Canal. This the canal construction breached the biogeographic barriers that for millions of years had isolated the biotas of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. More than 300 species have settled in the Mediterranean. While the process has been going on for 150 years, the proliferation of new species has intensified in the last decades, due to recent widening of the Suez Canal, human disturbances of ecosystems, and global warming. The marine invasion-topic has been a topic of natural science for long, but has recently reached the public sphere: newspaper headlines have alerted readers how Lessepsian migrants outrival native species, damage fisheries, tourism and human bodies. The task of surveying and regulating the species labeled invasive is becoming an urgent issue among sea experts and policy makers. But how do you regulate marine species, which seemingly don't care about borders, passports or rules? In this talk I explore border regimes, discourses on invasive species and thalassopolitics in the context of the Mediterranean Sea and Lessepsian migration. What are these marine migrants legally, politically and conceptually - terrorists or tourists, migrants or pirates, parasites or saviors? What are the regimes that render them threats, resources or just "nature"?