MSGID: 1:317/3 62720196   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Indigenous peoples have shucked billions of oysters around the world   
   sustainably    
      
     Date:   
         May 3, 2022   
     Source:   
         Smithsonian   
     Summary:   
         A new global study of Indigenous oyster fisheries shows that   
         oyster fisheries were hugely productive and sustainably managed   
         on a massive scale over hundreds and even thousands of years of   
         intensive harvest. The study's broadest finding was that long   
         before European colonizers arrived, the Indigenous groups in these   
         locations harvested and ate immense quantities of oysters in a   
         manner that did not appear to cause the bivalves' populations to   
         suffer and crash.   
      
      
      
   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   A new global study of Indigenous oyster fisheries co-led by Smithsonian's   
   National Museum of Natural History anthropologist Torben Rick and Temple   
   University anthropologist and former Smithsonian postdoctoral fellow   
   Leslie Reeder-Myers shows that oyster fisheries were hugely productive and   
   sustainably managed on a massive scale over hundreds and even thousands   
   of years of intensive harvest. The study's broadest finding was that   
   long before European colonizers arrived, the Indigenous groups in these   
   locations harvested and ate immense quantities of oysters in a manner that   
   did not appear to cause the bivalves' populations to suffer and crash.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   The research, published May 3 in Nature Communications, suggests that   
   studying these ancient, sustainable fisheries offers insights to help   
   restore and manage estuaries today. Further, the authors write that   
   these findings make plain that Indigenous peoples in these locations had   
   deep connections to oysters and that their living descendants are long   
   overdue to be involved in decisions about how to manage what is left of   
   this precious coastal resource.   
      
   In places like the Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay and Botany Bay near   
   Sydney, oysters exist at tiny fractions of their former numbers. Oyster   
   numbers declined in these places due to boom and bust exploitation --   
   beginning with European colonizers establishing commercial fisheries that   
   quickly raked in huge quantities of oysters, and ending with cratering   
   oyster populations that were also being devastated by habitat alteration,   
   disease and introduced species.   
      
   But these parables of ecological collapse wrought by colonization and   
   capitalism often omit evidence of Indigenous fisheries that predated   
   those of European settlers by thousands of years.   
      
   Rick said the new paper expands on a seminal 2004 paper that documented   
   the collapses of 28 oyster fisheries located along the east and west   
   coasts of North America and Australia's east coast. But the 2004 paper's   
   timeline in each location begins with European colonists' creation of   
   commercial oyster fisheries.   
      
   The new study's goal was to deepen the historical context of those modern   
   declines by documenting the Indigenous oyster fisheries at the same   
   locales that appeared in the 2004 paper. But stretching this ecological   
   timeline deeper into the past was not the paper's only aim, Rick said.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   "Conservation today can't just be seen as a biological question and   
   can't just be about undoing the environmental damage we've done in the   
   modern era," Rick said. "Instead, global conservation efforts should be   
   coupled with undoing the legacies of colonialism which brought about   
   the attempted erasure and displacement of Indigenous people all over   
   the world."  To document the Indigenous oyster fisheries in the same   
   locations from the 2004 paper, Rick, Reeder-Myers and colleagues turned   
   to the archaeological record, specifically to accumulations of oyster   
   shells that are also known as middens.   
      
   These middens come in many forms and are much more than trash piles as   
   some archeologists once suggested. Some were small and perhaps only used   
   seasonally, while others were monumental, towering up to 30 feet into   
   the sky, serving as important ceremonial, sacred and symbolic spaces.   
      
   Rick and Reeder-Myers assembled a team of 24 other researchers who   
   specialized in the relevant archaeological sites to gather all the data   
   they could on these Indigenous oyster fisheries. These data came from   
   published academic papers, gray literature (research not made readily   
   available for publication) and the team's own research.   
      
   After creating what amounted to a massive spreadsheet for these North   
   American and Australian sites, the researchers assessed which pieces   
   of information were available for the greatest number of locations and   
   realized that the weight of the oyster shells or the number of individual   
   oysters at a site were the two data sets that were most consistent.   
      
   "Oyster harvesting didn't start 500 years ago with the arrival of   
   Europeans," said study co-author Bonnie Newsom, an anthropologist   
   at the University of Maine and citizen of the Penobscot Indian   
   Nation. "Indigenous peoples had a relationship with and understood   
   this species well enough to use it as part of their subsistence and   
   cultural practices. Indigenous peoples have a lot to offer in terms of   
   how to engage with this natural resource in ways that are sustainable."   
   In North America, the highest single site totals come from Florida's Gulf   
   Coast. The study estimates that an island called Mound Key in Estero   
   Bay contains the shells of some 18.6 billion oysters harvested by the   
   region's Calusa tribe. About 200 miles north in Cedar Key, Florida, a   
   site known simply as Shell Mound features the remains of an estimated 2.1   
   billion oysters. On the Atlantic coast of the United States, the midden   
   at South Carolina's Fig Island boasts just under 75.6 million oysters,   
   and a number of sites in the Chesapeake Bay total around 84 million of   
   the shellfish remains. In Australia, Saint Helena Island near Brisbane   
   is estimated to contain roughly 50 million oyster shells harvested by   
   Indigenous peoples over more than 1,000 years.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   "We knew there were big sites in the southern U.S., but when we started to   
   calculate just how many oysters were in these sites we were astonished,"   
   Rick said.   
      
   Some of the oldest oyster middens are found in California and   
   Massachusetts and date back more than 6,000 years. The longest-utilized   
   single sites (though not necessarily with perfect continuity) span some   
   5,000 years.   
      
   In many of these places, prior studies have suggested that Indigenous   
   harvests remained sustainable despite their long tenure and significant   
   numbers. The most common way of determining this, Rick said, is by   
   looking for changes in the oysters' shell sizes in the middens. If the   
   fishery is overextended, the shells tend to get smaller. But studies   
   of Indigenous oyster fisheries have not found widespread evidence of   
   this shrinking shell pattern, suggesting the shellfish populations were   
   generally healthy.   
      
   "The fact that there are so many oysters at archaeological sites in so   
   many different regions is an important lesson," said Reeder-Myers. "These   
   systems have a ton of potential and huge quantities of oysters can be   
   sustainably harvested over long time periods if the ecosystem is healthy."   
   Rick said he hopes that their findings are heeded by biologists and   
   environmental managers and heighten public awareness about the deep   
   connections of Indigenous peoples to coastal ecosystems around the world.   
      
   "What this study does is it says we need to start a broader dialogue when   
   we look to restore an ecosystem or make conservation decisions," Rick   
   said. "In this case, that dialogue needs to include the Indigenous peoples   
   whose ancestors stewarded these ecosystems for millennia. This broadening   
   of perspectives can enhance biological conservation and help restore   
   connections between Indigenous peoples and their ancestral homelands."   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by Smithsonian. Note: Content may be   
   edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Reeder-Myers, L., Braje, T.J., Hofman, C.A. et al. Indigenous oyster   
         fisheries persisted for millennia and should inform future   
         management.   
      
         Nat Commun, 2022 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29818-z   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220503110516.htm   
      
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