Two studies of prehistoric fisheries have shown that early cultures (unlike us) already knew how to get high yields without overexploiting fish resources.
In thirty years, humanity needs to double its food production, otherwise we simply will not be able to feed ourselves. In order to achieve this goal, our brilliant civilization could use the examples of ancient peoples.
Jack Kittinger of the University of Hawaii (USA) and Lauren McClenahan of Simon Fraser University (Canada) studied reef fishing in Hawaii, inhabited 700 years ago.
Archaeological evidence suggests that the islanders paid little attention to agriculture and relied heavily on seafood. It is estimated that each ancient Hawaiian consumed about 182.5 kg of seafood per year - about the same as a modern-day Pacific Islander eats. Experts believe that before contact with Europeans, the population of Hawaii was 160 thousand people, and by the time of the invasion of settlers, it reached its peak - 250 thousand people.
It is not surprising that the ocean could feed such a horde: in those days, the productivity of reefs was 3-4 times higher than the current threshold for sustainable reef fishing. How is this possible?
And the secret is that, judging by historical sources and ethnographic research, pre-European Hawaiian culture contained a complex set of rules, according to which fishing was regularly prohibited in certain places, and catching of rare species was also limited. There is also archaeological evidence of the existence of a kind of nursery in which mullet and chanos were grown.
All of this was vital, as Hawaii was often the victim of tsunamis, floods, hurricanes and droughts, so sophisticated risk management strategies were needed, in modern parlance.
The Hawaiians were not the only “primitive” people who, before the “developed” Europeans, developed methods of protecting food resources and using them sustainably. Anne Salomon and Amy Grosbeck of Simon Fraser University have shown that the ancient Kwakwak'awakw and K'omox tribes of the coast of British Columbia maintained "shellfish gardens" for two thousand years before the practice was ended by overseas aliens.
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Molluscs are filter feeders and thrive on pebble beaches where the tide brings nutrients. Artificial "gardens" provided them with excellent conditions. These are fenced-off coastal spaces that were set up in the intertidal zone. Water poured over the low walls, and at low tide it was possible to harvest. In the spring, the researchers placed the clams on eleven beaches with and without walls, and in the fall they looked at what happened. Indeed, in the "gardens" mollusks grew faster and lived longer - beauty!
Of course, not all ancient peoples turned out to be good ecologists. For example, the inhabitants of the Florida Keys have always been small in number - when Europeans arrived on the islands, only a thousand people lived there (today, about 80 thousand). Those people couldn't think of ways to feed themselves to feed their extra mouths.
The research results are published in the journal Fish and Fisheries.