Chewpoints across the Pacific Ocean: Marine borers and the disruption of colonial infrastructure

Abstract This article examines the disconnected environmental knowledges, as well as the literal disconnection of shipping infrastructure, caused by the spread of shipworms across the Pacific Ocean. From the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, endemic species of these wood-eating bivalve molluscs were joined by introduced species unknowingly transported in the hulls of commercial and colonial vessels. These borers found new coastal habitats in the timber of colonial ports, and they spread largely unseen until they had eaten away at the maritime foundations that sought to integrate Pacific species and peoples into global networks of energy and capital flows. Simultaneously, research to prevent the shipworms’ rasps across different Pacific ports highlights the flows and limits of scientific and environmental knowledge across oceanic space. The article explores different human relationships with the multispecies assemblage of worm and wood across the Pacific and how shipworms and their chewpoints serve as an embodiment of inter- and dis-connection in globalizing oceanic networks.