User blog comment:Fliu/Chapter 957: More Info on Rocks/@comment-43942467-20190928000009/@comment-108.83.222.210-20191002041603

Quite so. Pirates may start out as beginners, as rookies, but over time they can grow to be impressive threats. Luffy is the most obvious example, but he is not the only one. It is much easier to pluck out weeds and plants while they are still young and weak then it is to cut them out when they have grown uncontrolled. I still stick by my previous comment, but I overlooked this aspect of their function. Thank you very much for pointing this out for me. These pirates did a pretty good job diminishing the number of rookies and ensuring that the marines wouldn't have to deal with as many of them.