Into the Deep: Origins and Evolution of Northeastern Pacific Ocean Tuna (Thunnus spp.) Fisheries

Abstract

People have had a profound influence on Earth's biodiversity for millennia, culminating in Anthropocene environmental degradation and the modern biodiversity crisis. While the scale and extent of people's long-term influence on Earth's biodiversity in terrestrial and nearshore marine ecosystems are relatively well studied, there are significant questions about the antiquity and evolution of people's influence on pelagic ecosystems and organisms. We explore the Holocene history of human interactions with offshore marine organisms and ecosystems by integrating archaeological and historical perspectives on the origins and expansion of northeastern Pacific Ocean tuna (Thunnus spp.) fisheries. Indigenous people from the Pacific Coast of Canada to Baja California fished for tuna for > 5000 years, but tuna were generally not one of the most abundant species targeted by Indigenous fisheries, which largely focused on nearshore kelp forest, rocky reef and estuary habitats. The scale of Indigenous tuna fisheries is relatively small when compared to capitalist commercial fisheries, which commenced by the onset of the 20th century, rapidly accelerated during World War I and II, and declined by the mid-1980s or earlier. Although Indigenous people fished for tuna in the northeastern Pacific for millennia, significant human use of and influence on offshore ecosystems in the northeastern Pacific is primarily associated with the mid-20th century Great Acceleration and associated global ecological impacts. These data illustrate the important role of people as a driving force in marine habitats for millennia but demonstrate that strong anthropogenic influence on nearshore coastal ecosystems appeared several millennia before those of offshore ecosystems.