Where Did the Fish Go? Use of Archaeological Salmonid Remains to Guide Recovery Efforts in the American West

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Human Interactions with Extinct Fauna" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Given the scale of habitat loss from development associated with the Industrial Age, archaeological faunas pre-dating the modern era often represent animal populations extirpated from their former ranges. For example, anadromous salmonid populations in the Pacific Northwest of North America have become extirpated from much of their range in the past 100 years largely because of dams built for hydroelectric power and flood control. As the costs for mitigating environmental impacts from dams exceed the benefits, decisions are being made to remove these obstructions and support fish recovery in some river basins. Archaeological salmonid remains represent an important source of information that can guide recovery efforts. Analysis of aDNA provides insights on species and sometimes sub-populations that once occupied a system. Incremental analysis of otoliths can indicate life history of pre-development salmonid populations. Moreover, archaeological records can help establish whether salmonid populations even migrated into basins under consideration for "restoration", given that habitat losses often preceded biological surveys. Research from projects in the Klamath and Columbia River basins (California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, British Columbia) highlights the value and potential of archaeological records towards recovery of extirpated fish populations in the American west.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Human Interactions with Extinct Fauna   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23881