Fish, Fishing, and Ecological Resilience along the Big Sur Coast of California

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches in Zooarchaeology: Addressing Big Questions with Ancient Animals" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Along the Big Sur coastline, the Salinan and Esselen relied on a relatively consistent repertoire of small and medium-bodied fish species for at least 6,000 years. Decades of systematic excavations have identified the importance of fish, although we are still gathering data on temporal and spatial trends in varying ecological circumstances. Marine fish recovered from archaeological sites CA-MNT-1951 and CA-MNT-255, marine biology data, and intertidal foraging experiments contribute to our understanding of fish and fishing practices during the Early (5500–2600 cal BP) and Middle (2600–1000 cal BP) periods. Fish within four species dominate the collections: surfperches caught with nets, rockfish and cabezon amendable to individual hook and line capture, and pricklebacks by hand. These species dominate the archaeological record along the Big Sur and central California Coast. All represented fish could have been procured from the near shore waters of rocky intertidal, kelp forest, and tide pole habitats. The significant continuity in fish species caught through time—with no compelling evidence for depression of prehistoric fisheries or intensified fishing practices or technologies—reflects the abundance and resilience of fish in this productive marine ecosystem.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Interdisciplinary Approaches in Zooarchaeology: Addressing Big Questions with Ancient Animals   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38452.0