hello octonauts fandom... i've been thinking about the octonauts and how they're surviving given that most of them are obligate carnivores...
Through minimal research, I learned that one of the things cats really need from meat and stuff is taurine. And apparently seaweed and algae contains taurine!! This makes sense with all the kelp and algae products the octonauts eat!
Cats can't get everything they need from plants due to their disgestive systems, but all their food is already processed I imagine to extract all the goodies!
And more specifically with cats and seaweed: the pirate stew recipe!!! Specifically kelp and idk what kelp has in in but uhhh. Given that pirates seem to (at least, often) be cats, it makea sense they'd have all those recipes to process what they need
The real question is would most pirates just eat meat.
At this point ive just accepted octonauts pirates are NOT real world pirates. I've come to the conclusion that its a people/culture that originated as explorers who survived by trading at ports. Gathering on islands, growing what they could on their ships with their special methods, and gathering from the sea.
Due to the scarcity of resources on the open sea however many of them turned to thievery, to the point it became their reputation and what they are known for mainstream. Calico jack famously continuing to associate himself with being a pirate even though it has so many negative associations because. He wants others born pirates to know that they can still partake in that heritage without doing all those terrible things.
Really in octonauts kwazii acts like pirates are amazing awesome people, so within the show it doesn't really make sense to have this negative interpretation of pirates. HOWEVER. there is one line in one episode i read in to way too much: the episode with the leafy seadragons where kwazii is making the aforementioned pirate stew and the poor seadragons think he's going to kill them.
And when he realizes they're not kelp one says “dont hurt us” and he says “im not gonna hurt you i thought u were kelp." And one says “but ur a pirate." (I'm not gonna use that as evidence because clearly through the stew making process they've gotten across that pirates destroy kelp)
and kwazii!!! Doesnt say anything like oh i wouldnt do that pirates wouldnt do that. He says and i quote: “I'm also an Octonaut and Octonauts help little critters like you.”Which totally definitely confirms that his identity as an octonaut directly counteracts the typical association with a pirate. Cough thus is extremely weak i know 😭)