Perishable but not forgotten: the potential use of seaweeds on California's Channel Islands

Summary

California’s Channel Islands are surrounded by some of the most extensive and productive kelp forests on the planet with nearshore environments containing more than 100 species of edible seaweeds. Archaeological deposits testify to the use of kelp forests by native islanders, but there has been little discussion of seaweeds as a food resource. Ethnohistoric evidence that Channel Islanders consumed seaweeds is limited,but accounts of islander foodways in general are minimal. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts ranging from the Pacific Northwest to Baja California demonstrate considerable use of seaweeds by native coastal peoples. Archaeologically, the use of seaweeds is obscured by their perishable nature, but seaweed-associated mollusks can help infer the extent to which they were used in the past and archaeobotanical identification may be an important avenue of future research.We summarize the biology, diversity, ecology, and productivity of seaweeds in the California Bight, highlighting ecological interactions with mollusks that can be used to infer kelp harvesting, and discuss nutritional data supporting the likely consumption of these resources in the past. As evidence for the use of endemic plants mounts on the Channel Islands, we provide suggestive evidence that "sea vegetables" were harvested as well.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Re-evaluating the Marginality of California's Islands: Implications for Archaeological Interpretation   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage