The Role of Archaeological and Cultural-Historical Records in Long-range Coastal

Fisheries Resources Management Strategies and Policies in the Pacific Islands

P. Dalzell
Current address: Western Pacific Fisheries Council, Suite 1405, 1164 Bishop St, Honolulu,
HI 96813, USA

Draft paper for submission to "Ocean and Coastal Management" 1997

ABSTRACT
Humans settled most of the Pacific Islands over the last three millennia although settlement in
Western Melanesia dates from the late Pleistocene, or a period of about 30 millennia.
Archaeological studies conducted in the Pacific Islands over the past half century contain
information on the long-term subsistence exploitation of fish and invertebrates from
nearshore coral reefs and lagoons. Molluscs appear have been very important as a food
source for early human colonists in the Pacific Islands, and declines in abundance through
harvest pressure and environmental effects forced a greater reliance on fin-fish capture and
on agriculture. There is no firm evidence from the archaeological record to suggest that long-
term subsistence exploitation of reef fish populations has had any serious negative effects on
abundance or structure of reef fish communities. An example of a subsistence reef fishery in
Papua New Guinea, extending over a period of nearly four millennia, argues for long-term
stability of the exploited reef fish populations. The utility of conventional fisheries science for
long-term fisheries management and policies in the resource-poor islands of the Pacific is
very limited. To be truly effective, coastal fisheries management in the Pacific Islands should
be truly multi-disciplinary profession, and must involve greater interaction and collaboration
among fishery scientists, archaeologists and anthropologists.

INTRODUCTION
The Pacific Islands were among the last areas of the Earth to be settled by humans. In most of
these islands settlement occurred within the last two to three millennia. The major challenge
facing new colonists arriving on uninhabited Pacific Islands was to maintain a sustainable
source of food, from both land and sea. One of the most accessible sources of food is found in
the coastal zone, along the tidal zone and rock pools where molluscs and small fish can be
gathered or caught. Although contemporary Pacific Island human populations have a wider
range of foods available than at any time in the past, fish and other seafoods form a major
component of their diet. Further, in many locations Pacific Islanders continue to derive
substantial nutrition from small fish and invertebrates obtained by gleaning on reef flats and
in rock pools at low tides.

It is reasonable to suppose that where human populations flourished on the Pacific Islands
following initial colonization, harvesting pressure markedly increased on the most accessible
food resources, such as molluscs and other sessile invertebrates on shallow reefs and lagoons.
Adaptation to declines in food supply from such sources would have been vital if post-
colonization island populations were to survive, and would have required the development, or
at least an improvement, of animal husbandry, horticulture, and hunting and fishing skills to
ensure food security. Further, human activities, such as fishing and collecting from reefs and
even agriculture, have the demonstrable capacity to markedly affect and change the
environment. Such activities are also likely to have had an impact on coastal fisheries
resources, and human populations would have had to adapt to these and other physical
perturbations, such as prolonged drought, cyclones, tsunami, sea level changes, and tectonic
uplift.

In this article I examine some of the archaeological and historical evidence for impacts on
coastal fisheries resources by early human populations in the Pacific Islands. Pre-historic
populations accumulated extensive middens over centuries and millennia. These contain
mollusc, crustacean and echinoderm shell fragments, teleost and elasmobranch skeletal
remains, and fishhooks manufactured from shell, bone, wood, and stone. The archaeological
evidence assembled from midden sites in the Pacific Islands tends to support the sequence of
events outlined in the previous paragraph, particularly with respect to molluscan resources.
The cultural memory of how human populations responded to the changes in their food
supply have ultimately evolved into the traditions of marine tenure and regulation observed in
contemporary Pacific Island societies, and can be generally subsumed under the definitions of
traditional fisheries management practices. Documentation of these various codes of
ownership and regulation and the mechanisms by which they work are now widely available.1
In this article I attempt to provide a longer temporal context for these other contributions, by
making a synthesis of historical and archaeological evidence from which the effects of long-
term exploitation of subsistence coastal fisheries resources in the Pacific Islands may be
inferred.

As is clear from other studies, these traditional regulatory systems are generally on the wane
in many places in the Pacific as urbanized lifestyles and general modernization replace
traditional village life.2 However, coastal fisheries resources continue to be a major staple in
the diets of most of the Pacific Islands and a source of income for island people, to their
continued productivity must be ensured. Further, there is a growing consensus that one of the
major challenges for the Pacific Islands in the twenty-first century will be the demand placed
on coastal fisheries resources from neighboring East and Southeast Asia.3 Indeed, almost all
the commercial nearshore invertebrate fisheries production, such as molluscs for mother-of-
pearl and sea-cucumbers for bLche-de-mer, currently supply East and Southeast Asian
markets. And there is now growing interest in live coastal reef fish from the same markets.

Most Pacific islands, however, have small fisheries administrations, with little or no research
capacity to gather the comprehensive information required for management. Consequently,
coastal fisheries management in much of the South Pacific is largely based on intuition rather
than on collected observations and experience. Johannes (1994) 4 has argued that this very
problem is an opportunity to seek a new paradigm for fisheries management in the South
Pacific - one that is not based on the conventional approach of intensive data gathering and
analysis, but based on self-reinforcing feedback systems at the local level. What I hope is
demonstrated from this contribution is that much of the information relevant to understanding
the long-term effects of exploitation of Pacific Islands coastal marine resources can be
gathered from the historical and archaeological record, and can be combined in contemporary
approaches to coastal fisheries management.

HUMAN SETTLEMENT OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

A short chronology of the settlement of the Pacific Islands is given here, with the sections
concerned with pre-historic settlement based largely on Belwood (1980) 5 and Irwin (1992) 6,
and the advent of European exploration and annexation summarized from Howe (1984) 7.
Humans first appeared in the Pacific from the west towards the end of the late-Pleistocene
era, about 40,000 years BP (Before Present), as populations of hunter-gatherers, probably of
Asian origin, moved from island-to-island through the Indonesian chain to the New Guinea
mainland, the New Guinea Islands, and probably the Solomon Islands. During this period sea
levels were lower than at present, and it is thought that crossing between islands was
accomplished on simple rafts and canoes. Then, as today, it is possible to journey from the
Asian mainland via Indonesia to the tip of the Solomon Islands without losing sight of land.
Further intrusion into the Pacific required greater sailing and navigational skills, and thus the
transit from the Solomon Islands to the Vanuatu archipelago and the islands beyond was not
possible for these simple voyagers.

Current evidence for the earliest settlement in the New Guinea Islands is 32,000 BP, in New
Ireland, and 28,000 years BP in Bougainville, at the northern end of the Solomon=s chain.
The people of the New Guinea Highlands and Australian Aboriginals are remnant populations
of these initial migrations, and are termed collectively Australoids. About 3,500 to 4,000
years BP, a second wave of migrants moved through Melanesia from Southeast Asia. These
new migrants, were characterized by the manufacture of distinctively stamped and incised
pottery, known as Lapita, named from an excavation site in New Caledonia. Unlike the initial
Australoid populations, they had developed the outrigger canoe and sailing, which made
journeys over broader expanses of water much safer; and they had developed the culture of
root crops and pig farming. These agrarian advances encouraged settlement of other lands,
some of which would have been unable to support a terrestrial hunter-gatherer existence. The
new migrants demonstrated racial and linguistic affinities with contemporary East Asian
mainland populations and spoke related languages in the large Austronesian family.

Over the next 500 years this Austronesian-speaking Lapita culture spread through the
Melanesian islands, via Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji, to Tonga and Samoa, some 5,000
km distant in the central Pacific. The settlers in Tonga and Samoa became the ancestors of the
modern Polynesians. Later migrations northwards from Melanesia, between 2,000 and 2,500
years BP, colonized the islands of eastern nuclear Micronesia (Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
and the eastern Caroline Islands), with an earlier migration, probably from the Philippines,
around 3,500 BP colonizing the islands of western Micronesia (the Marianas, Palau and Yap).
Early in the first millennium AD the western Polynesians began a third phase of voyages to
colonize the islands of central and eastern Polynesia, to the east of the Andesite Line. This
marks the boundary between the islands of the continental regions of the Western Pacific and
the volcanic mountains on the Pacific Plate, which push to the surface to form small high
islands and atolls. The Marquesas, and possibly the Society Islands, were probably settled in
300 AD, during this third phase, and Easter Island perhaps a century later. Over the next 500
years, the fourth and final phase of migrations by the Polynesians resulted in the settlement of
Hawaii and New Zealand, on the margins of Oceania. A summary of the various entries and
dispersions of human populations in the Pacific is given in Figure 1.

The era of European exploration of the Pacific commenced in with Magellan who was
followed by Dutch explorers, such as Tasman and Schouten, and British and French
explorers, such as Dampier, Cook and Bougainville over the next three centuries. Howe
(1984) 7suggests that it is easy to overestimate the European impact on the Pacific Island
communities before 1800. Overall some 300 years of European exploration had either a
minimal or no immediate effect on Pacific lifestyles. Indeed, the impact of the discovery of
the Pacific Islands was probably far more noticeable in Europe, where as well as providing
geographic enlightenment, the European discoveries made a major contribution to political,
economic and intellectual developments in the Old World.7 The accounts of explorers,
particularly after the mid-eighteenth century, generated European commercial and missionary
interests from about 1800 onwards, and the steady annexation of the Pacific proceeded
throughout the nineteenth century, until by 1900 Tonga was the only independent island
nation left in the region. Apart from the Spanish possession of the Mariana Islands, annexed
in 1565, all the remaining islands of the Pacific were colonized during the latter half of the
nineteenth century.

Sometimes islands changed colonial administrations owing to conflict between the colonial
powers. The Spanish-American war of 1898 saw Spain relinquish possession of the Mariana
Islands to the USA. And following WW I, German possessions in Micronesia, Melanesia and
Polynesia were re-distributed to Japan, Australia and New Zealand, respectively. During WW
II, Japan controlled most of Micronesia and much of northern Melanesia (Papua New Guinea
& Solomon Islands). Following WW II, Japanese Pacific possessions in Micronesia were
placed in the stewardship of the USA until, in the mid-1980s, these either chose to remain
American territories or opted for independence or free-association. The latter quarter of the 20
century has seen the influence of the colonial administrations decline as 14 new independent
countries emerge and greater autonomy given to the remaining territories.
 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD OF ANTHROPOGENIC EFFECTS ON PACIFIC
COASTAL FISHERIES RESOURCES
Dalzell and Adams (1996) 8 have presented a brief review of archaeological information on
coastal fisheries exploitation with respect to reef fisheries sustainability. In this contribution
the results of archaeological investigations of natural resources at seven Pacific Island sites
are discussed in greater detail. These sites are Matenkupum (New Ireland, Papua New
Guinea), Tongatapu (Tonga), Mangaia (Cook Islands), Tikopia (Solomon Islands), Mussau
(northern Papua New Guinea), Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro (Caroline Islands), and Aitutaki
(Cook Islands).

Matenkupum (New Ireland, Papua New Guinea)

Archaeological excavations at Matenkupum on New Ireland, PNG) have uncovered fish

bones and molluscs remains dating from the late-Pleistocene era, at 32,000 years BP.
According to Allen et al (1989) 9, these are the earliest evidence of the human capture of
marine fish anywhere in the world, making this location also the world=s oldest continuously
exploited reef and lagoon fishery.

The midden sites contain crab, lobster and sea urchin shells, teleost and elasmobranch skeletal
material, and turtle and crocodile bones. The marine shellfish comprise a wide variety of
species that derive predominantly from the intertidal reef zone or coastal fringing mangroves,
with shell densities greatest at between 32,000 to 20,000 BP. Shells deposited in the
Matenkupum midden in the earliest levels were mainly large individuals from large species,
while the uppermost layers contained the fewest large species and the smallest mean sizes of
species. These patterns reflect low levels of human predation on largely pristine mollusc
populations, and indicate that some form of rotational cropping of the shellfish populations
was probably practiced by these early colonists on New Ireland.9

Allen et al (1989) 9 note that there was no evidence of consumption of fish inhabiting the
outer reef slope or the open sea, with fish remains confined to species from the shallow reef
zone. This is also the case in much of present day Melanesia. Further, neither evidence of fish
hooks have been found from the late-Pleistocene strata in the middens nor evidence of their
manufacture that have been found in other Pacific sites. Allen et al assumed therefore that
fish were taken either by netting, spearing, poisoning, and stone weir traps on the reef flat.

Tongatapu (Tonga)

Elsewhere in the Pacific most archaeological studies concern the Lapita civilizations, the
ancestors of the modern Polynesians, Micronesians and coastal Melanesian populations. This
gives a time frame for most archaeological evidence of between 3,500 years BP to 300-400
years BP, or to the period shortly before European contact. As was evident from the data from
the late- Pleistocene example from Papua New Guinea, pre-historic island populations may
have heavily exploit sedentary invertebrates, particularly molluscs, as evident from shell
middens.

Spennenman (1987) 10 showed that the initial human population on Tongatapu (Tonga) were
heavily reliant on the molluscs from the adjacent lagoon and reefs, especially Anadara
antiquata, Gafrarium tumidum and G. gibbosium. At the time of initial settlement of Tonga,
between 3,000 to 3,500 years BP, Fanga=Uta Lagoon on Tongatapu was much larger than at
present. The reduction in the size of the lagoon is though to have resulted from a combination
of tectonic uplift and falling sea levels. The reduction in the lagoon area was accompanied by
dilution of the lagoon water, which lowered salinities and favored the Gafrarium spp., while
putting A. antiquata at a distinct disadvantage. During the period between 3,500-2,000 years
BP, Anadara spp. gradually declined in importance, due partially to exploitation but also to
increasing dilution of the seawater in Tongatapu Lagoon. In contrast, Gafrarium spp. became
more common in the shell middens.
Spennenman (1987)10 obtained an age-at-size relationship for G. tumidum from spawning
checks on the shell, by assuming that each mark was deposited annually. The size frequency
distributions of G. tumidum in the various midden levels were then converted into age
frequencies from which survivorship curves could be calculated. The survivorship curves for
the G. tumidum showed that the population age composition shifted with time toward younger
smaller molluscs during the late-Lapita Period on Tonga. This has continued to the present.
Spennenman (1987)10 concluded that diminishing shellfish returns both in quality and
quantity marked the subsistence economy of the late-Lapita Period. As a response to the
declining shellfish resource, the human population of Tongatapu was forced to expand
horticulture in inland areas, increase pit construction for food storage, and increase the
proportion of pig in the diet, as evidenced by the greater amount of pig bones in the late-
Lapita Period. The declining shellfish resource may also have been marked by an
intensification of the exploitation of reef and lagoon fish, although the evidence for this is
mostly circumstantial. Spennenman notes, however, that osteoarthritic changes in human
spines from skeletons dating from 800 to 600 years BP indicate that canoeing and presumably
fishing was a daily occurrence, although no fish bones have been recovered from
archaeological strata of that date.

Tikopia (Solomon Islands)

Excavations on Tikopia, a Polynesian outlier in the Solomon Islands, suggest a similar pattern
of pre-historic exploitation to that observed in Tongatapu. Tikopia was colonized about 3,000
BP, and mollusc resources appear to have been a major source of animal protein for the initial
colonizers, especially ark shells and other clams such as Periglypta spp., Atactodea spp., and
the gastropod Strombus strombus (Kirch & Yen 1982).11 In common with Tongatapu,
environmental changes also had an influence on mollusc exploitation. Present day Tikopia has
a shallow coastal brackish lake or Abongo@ that previously was a circular bay with a narrow
entrance. Kirch & Yen (1982)11 suggest that the lake entrance silted up, possibly as a result of
agricultural activities on slopes around the bay contributing to sediments in the runoff and
tectonic uplift of the coastal margin. After the bay was sealed and became a brackish lake, the
mollusc resource declined in importance in the diet. Pig became increasingly more important
as a source of animal protein, and there was a greater reliance on agriculture in general.

A variety of shore fishes comprise the ichthyofaunal remains found by Kirch & Yen (1982).11
They found that porcupinefish (Diodontidae) and moray eels (Muraenidae) were particularly
evident in the lower levels of the archaeological strata, but disappeared from the record in the
post-Lapita Period. Indeed, there is now a customary taboo on the consumption of these fishes
on Tikopia. Kirch & Yen suggest that repeated incidences of ciguatera poisoning may have
led the pre-historic Tikopians to avoid and ultimately proscribe porcupinefish and moray eels
from the diet. Ciguatera is certainly common in moray eels where this form of
ichthyosarcotoxism is probably more prevalent than in most other reef species (porcupine fish
are not associated with ciguatera and toxicity is more likely to be related to very potent
tetrodotoxins concentrated in the gonads, liver and intestines of porcupinefish and other
related pufferfishes). Kirch (1988)12 noted that a similar situation occurred at Niutoputapu,
where diodontids were also common in excavations but never eaten by the contemporary
population. Similarly, Leach & Davidson (1988)13 found that moray eels and pufferfish
(although not porcuinefish) had been actively avoided for about a millennia by fishers on the
Micronesian atoll of Nukuoro (see below), although they are common on the reefs and were
actively targeted over the same period by fishers on the neighboring Kapingamarangi atoll.
Porcupinefish remains are a common feature of such Polynesian archaeological sites as
Aitutaki, in the Cook Islands (Allen 1992)14 , and Rurutu, in French Polynesia,and are still
consumed in some parts of Polynesia and Fiji, despite the associated health risk 15

Aitutaki (Cook Islands)

Changes in the abundance of mollusc populations may also have had a profound influence on
fishing technology and the resources exploited by pre-historic populations of Pacific Islands.
Allen (1992)14 notes that earlier sequences (1000 BP) in archaeological excavations at
Aitutaki, in the southern Cook Islands, contain hooks made from the shell of the pearl oyster
(Pinctada margaritifera), but these are replaced in later sequences (550-450 BP) by hooks
made predominantly from the turban shell (Turbo setosus). The decline in pearl shell hooks at
Aitutaki (and at other islands in the southern Cook Islands) may have resulted from a general
breakdown in communication between the islands, which involved the loss of exchange
materials such as pearl shell (Walter 1990).16 Allen (1992)14, on the other hand, argues that as
pearl oysters are locally available at Aitutaki, declines in pearl shell hook manufacturing may
have been due to cumulative changes in the local marine environment, and, in particular,
gardening on the eastern side of the island that accelerated terrigenous sedimentation of the
lagoon and caused a decline in the pearl oyster population. However, contemporary pearl
oyster populations are extremely low at Aitutaki, as observed during fisheries resource
assessment surveys in 1992 and 1995 (Adams et al 199517, I. Betram pers. comm.), and the
shallow enclosed lagoon is not particularly suitable for maintaining high densities of this
species. It is possible that P. margaritifera was never locally common.

Whatever the reason, the loss of availability of pearl oyster forced a shift to the use of turban
shell hooks by fishers at Aitutaki. However, turban shell and pearl oysters represent two
different basic shell structural types. As summarized by Allen (1992)14, turban shell has a
composite structure that includes both an outer prismatic layer and aragonite and a pearly
inner laminar layer. A thin inclined prismatic layer also overlies this inner layer. This makes
the turban shell very hard but not very elastic. Pearl oyster shell, in contrast, is a nacreous
structure in which tabular aragonite crystals are arranged in layers with an organic matrix.
These nacreous structures are most resistant to breakage in tension, compaction, impact, and
bending. Based on the composition changes in fish bone assemblages at Aitutaki, Allen
(1992)14 suggests that the reliance on weaker hooks forced fishers to fish predominantly in the
Aituaki lagoon for smaller fish which would not break the turban shell hooks, as opposed to
fishing for large carnivorous species, such as snappers (Lutjanidae) and groupers
(Serranidae), on the outer reef slope, and to increase the frequency fishing methods other than
angling. Allen cites as evidence for this the decline in the relative abundance of snappers
(Lutjanidae), which are caught mainly on the outer reef slope, and the increase in the
importance of triggerfish and porcupinefish, which were thought to be caught mainly by net
fishing. Allen also predicts that further study may reveal that Aitutaki serranid remains
change through time to species from predominantly outer reef slope taxa to species more
commonly caught in shallow inshore waters

Mangaia (Cook Islands)

Excavations in a rock shelter at Mangaia, in the Cook Islands, by Kirch et al (1995)18 showed
sustained exploitation between 980 to 330 years BP of the gastropod Turbo setosus, an
important species used throughout Polynesia both for food and making shell fishhooks. Kirch
et al (1995)18 found that the average size of the operculae of T. setosus in the middens
decreased by 50 % between the earliest layers in the sequence and those in later years, a
period of about 500 years. There is a significant increase in the frequency of molluscan
remains at about the middle of the sequence (500 years BP) and which continues thereafter.
Similar increases were noted with sea urchin tests and spines. But crustacean remains, which
were initially abundant, declined markedly to only small quantities in later layers. Kirch et al
(1995)18note that at the time of European contact, the population of Mangaia was at least
2,000-3,000 people, and may have been higher (the present day population is about 1,300
people). This was one of the most densely populated islands in central Polynesia, in which
both terrestrial and nearshore marine faunas were limited. Not surprisingly, there was intense
competition for these resources, particularly the arable land for growing taro, the chief root
crop staple.
Kirch et al (1995)18 found that reef and freshwater-brackish fishes formed most of the bones
deposited between 980 to 330 years BP. Of the marine fishes, acanthurids, labrids, serranids,
and cirrihitids (hawkfish) were the most common in the excavation site. The abundance of
hawkfish (15%) in the fish bone composition has not been noted elsewhere in Oceania, and it
is not known if this reflects local abundance on Mangaia=s reef or the development of a
specialized fishing strategy to catch these species. The other unusual feature of the Mangaia
excavationsCamong Pacific Island sitesCwas the prominence of fresh and brackish water
fishes, particularly the freshwater eels (Aguillidae) and gudgeons (Eleotridae), comprising
respectively 6 and 22 % of the fish bone assemblage. Eleotrids are a common feature of the
streams and lakes on Mangaia, and were caught in the past by netting, handlines and with
gorges (Buck 1944).19 An analysis of the fish bone assemblages from Mangaia by Butler
(1993)20 suggests that there was no significant reduction in the body size of the coral reef
fishes and eleotrids. However, the data did suggest that intensive fishing for anguilids led to a
reduction in size in the population with time and decline in the relative abundance in the bone
assemblages.

Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro (Federated States of Micronesia)

External analyses of fishing folklore and traditions may suggest that certain fish species are of
particular nutritional importance for island communities. However, this totemic assumption
may be given undue importance, and evidence from other sources sometimes suggests the
contrary. Leach & Davidson (1988)13 report on the cultural importance of the rainbow runner
on Nukuoro and Kapingamarangi, two Polynesian outlier atolls in Micronesia. The rainbow
runner (Elegatis bipinnulatis) is held in great esteem in both islands, is a subject of folklore
and song, and would appear to be both the most sought after species and the most frequently
caught on both atolls. However, Leach & Davidson13 found from the historical record from
excavations (to between 500-700 years BP on Nukuoro and 750 and 1,050 years BP on
Kapingamarangi) that the importance attached to rainbow runners is symbolic rather than
being truly important as a food fish.

Historically, the bulk of landings (85%) from both atolls were groupers, parrotfish, eels,
triggerfish, and jacks, all fishes that are taken on the reef or in the lagoon. Leach & Davidson
(1988)13 suggest that the difficulty attached to catching large pelagics, such as rainbow
runners, from non-motorized canoes makes them attractive and worthy of admiration and
mystique, rather than the lagoon species, such as parrot fish, which are easily caught by
netting or spearing. However, it is these proximate reef and lagoon species which have
formed the basis of food security in many Pacific Islands, both in the past and at present.
Nukuoro is renowned for the manufacture of fishhooks from pearl oyster shell, whereas on
Kapingamarangi hooks are made mainly from such less durable materials as turtle shell and
coconut shell. Leach & Davidson11 note, however, that angling with baited hooks appears to
be more productive on Kapingamarangi as opposed to Nukuoro, where netting appears to be
main the method of fisheries production. The authors concluded that while medium sized and
large pelagic fishes such as rainbow runners and tunas may have great socio-cultural
importance to fishers on the two atolls, their economic role has been relatively insignificant
over the last 1,000 years. The fishes most actively sought by fishers, even at the subsistence
level, are not necessarily those most frequently caught.

Mussau (Papua New Guinea)

Excavations at Mussau, about 110 km north of New Ireland, have uncovered fish bone
middens and trochus shell hooks extending between 3400 and 350 years BP (Kirch et al
1991).21 Many of the fish bones can be identified to the level of the family taxon, and the
same eight families (Serranidae, Lutjanidae, Lethrinidae, Labridae, Scaridae, Acanthuridae,
Balistidae, and Diodontidae) were prominent at all sites, comprising between 71-90 % of the
assemblages. Kirch et al (1991)21 note that there is very little change in the relative
frequencies of the different families over a period of nearly four millennia. The results
suggest a relatively stable reef fish fauna at Mussau, with subsistence fishing pressure by pre-
historic human populations having little influence on the various reef fish populations.

Butler (1988)22 showed that the fish bone assemblages from Mussau are similar to other
Lapita sites in the western and central Pacific, and that the eight families listed above account
for more than 85 % of fish remains at sites in the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa.
The same families (minus the Diodontidae) still form between 22 and 70 % of landings in
contemporary reef fisheries landings in the South Pacific, with an overall mean among
countries of 50 % (Dalzell et al 1996).23 The major difference between Mussau and the other
Lapita sites is the relative unimportance of Diodontidae, which form just over 5 % of the
Mussau fish bone assemblages, but between 6.5 and 41.5 % (mean = 21 %) of fish bone
assemblages elsewhere.

Later analyses by Butler (1994)24 compared the family composition from fish bones in Lapita
sites in Melanesia, including Mussau, and Polynesia. Most western Melanesian assemblages,
such as at Mussau, are comprised of similar frequencies of carnivores and
herbivores/omnivores, but eastern Lapita site assemblages are dominated by
herbivores/omnivores. Butler suggests that the faunal assemblages are possibly explained by
differences in fishing strategies. Hook-and-line, fishing, spearing and net fishing appear to
have been widely practiced in the western Lapita sites, whereas in the east hook-and-line
fishing, which catches predominantly carnivores, was less common. Another possible
interpretation, however, might be that the reduction in reef carnivores in the eastern Lapita
sites resulted from a higher fishing pressure, which reduced the populations of these species,
since that would be in accord with contemporary differences in the trophic composition of
fish catches between Polynesia and Melanesia (Adams & Dalzell n.d.).25

DISCUSSION
I have attempted to show that a rich vein of information about long-term subsistence fisheries
exploitation of reef and lagoon fisheries resources in the Pacific Islands can extracted from
archaeological records. The examples given here demonstrate some of the various aspects that
can be gleaned from an admittedly cursory reading of the archaeological record. They can be
broadly summarized as follows:

Reef and lagoon fisheries resources in the Pacific have been subjected to continuous
exploitation for many centuries, and in Western Melanesia for periods of between 20 to 30
millennia, making them some of the oldest known continuously exploited reef fisheries in the
world;

Mollusc resources appear to have been extremely important as a food source for early Pacific
Island human populations. In some instances declines in mollusc resources forced early
human populations to expand exploitation of other marine resources, and to develop a greater
reliance on agriculture;

The paleo-ichthyological record suggests that the sustained effects of exploitation of sessile
invertebrates, such as molluscs, can be quantitatively determined from shell assemblages, and
that long-term subsistence exploitation can in some cases markedly reduce the average size
composition of mollusc populations and species structure of communities;

Decline in populations or loss of supply of some molluscs, such as the pearl oyster, can also
have a marked effect on fishing technology and target species, as was the case on Aitutaki;

The pre-historic record with respect to fish exploitation is less conclusive. There does not
appear to be much strong evidence that long-term subsistence exploitation of reef fish has had
much impact on reef fish populations. Smaller more accessible fish populations, such as
freshwater eels, may be more vulnerable to sustained exploitation;
The archaeological record for subsistence reef fin-fisheries suggests long-term stability, with
changes in relative composition of different fish taxa in the temporal sequence perhaps
resulting more from other factors, such as changes in fishing technology, or repeated cases of
ichthyosarcotoxism affecting human behavior; and

Some differences in catch composition of fin-fish between western and eastern Lapita sites
reflect differences in absolute levels of fishing activity observed in contemporary Melanesian
and Polynesian populations, and their effects on the abundance of larger carnivorous species
may not simply reflect differences in the fishing methods employed.

Apart from a record of the impacts of exploitation, another important aspect of the
archaeological and historical record is its potential reinforce the social and cultural
importance of fisheries, and traditional property rights, even though these may have declined
through progressive urbanization and European colonization in the Pacific Islands. This latter
point has been amply demonstrated in New Zealand (Aotearoa), where the original
Polynesian Maori population was economically and socially marginalized following
European settlement in the nineteenth century. As a consequence of European settlement,
indigenous Maori property concepts and rights with respect to fisheries resources were not
recognized and the rights of indigenous fisheries were generally usurped. As the Maori
population declined and laws effectively dispossessed them of their fishing rights, the
European settlers, who were initially minor users of marine resources, gradually came to
dominate fishing. By the late-nineteenth century Maori fishing had declined to subsistence
activities, leading, until recently, to the perception by modern New Zealanders that Maori
fishing practices in the past were limited to little more than near-shore gleaning of shellfish
(Waitangi Tribunal 198826; Ruddle 199527).

However, many early European explorers recorded a range of diverse fishing activities as
well as expertise in seamanship and navigation among the Maori. Some traditional fishing
grounds were up to 40 km from shore, and the Maori regularly made catches numbering many
thousands of fish with large seine nets (Ruddle 1995)27. Further, fishing played a central role
in the traditional economy of the Maori, in trade and barter between coastal and inland tribes,
and latterly between Maori and initial European settlers and whaling vessels (Waitangi
Tribunal 1988)26. Archaeological studies have also produced evidence of a diverse range of
Maori fishing activities exploiting a wide range of fishes and marine mammals, such as seals,
including the preservation of large amounts of fish (see sources listed in Waitangi Tribunal
198826 and 199227). Indeed in some areas, such as the Muriwhenua region of New Zealand=s
North Island, fishing became a principal source of nutrition as human populations increased
and food from hunting and agriculture became increasingly limited. Such evidence has been
successfully used by the Maori people in New Zealand in seeking restoration of the
recognition of traditional fisheries property rights, as were guaranteed under the 1840 Treaty
of Waitangi.

As this example also demonstrates, the patterns of fisheries exploitation in the South Pacific
were irrevocably changed from the period of European expansion in the region, at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. Apart from colonial settlement on the Pacific Islands,
European, American and Asian traders also entered the region, and the era of commercial
fishing commenced.

The pre-historic record has shown that subsistence exploitation can have a noticeable
influence on sessile invertebrates but that these can continue to be productive over many
centuries. The scale of commercial exploitation during the nineteenth century demonstrated
how susceptible sessile invertebrates over a wide area could be to very heavy levels of
exploitation. An excellent example is the history of the Fiji bLche-de-mer trade between 1828
and 1842. The harvesting or fishing for sea cucumbers (Holothuroidea) for processing in to
the dried product, bLche-de-mer, is one of the oldest commercial fisheries in the South
Pacific, together with pearl oysters. Sea cucumbers are not a staple of the subsistence diet of
Pacific Islanders but are consumed in a few locations only as a condiment. Prior to European
contact, therefore, sea cucumber populations were subject to minimal fishing pressure. The
growth of the bLche-de-mer trade in the Pacific during the nineteenth century has been
documented by Ward (1972)28 and Conand (1990)29. Spanish, Australian and American
vessels operated throughout the Pacific during the first half of the nineteenth century trading
for both bLche-de-mer and sandalwood. The main target species for the bLche-de-mer trade,
then as now are sandfish (Holothuria scabra), white teatfish (Holothuria fuscogilva) and
black teatfish (Holothuria nobilis), with less valuable species, such as blackfish (Actinopyga
miliaris) and prickly redfish (Thelanota ananas), also contributing to harvests. Then, as now,
the main market for bLche-de-mer was China.

The center of the bLche-de-mer trade by the mid-nineteenth century was Fiji, where there was
a massive increase in exploitation between 1828 to 1848 (Ward 197228; Adams 198830).
During this 20-year period, an estimated 1000-1500 tonnes of dried bLche-de-mer were
exported. Adams (1988) states that very little fishing for bLche-de-mer occurred between
1835 and 1842, giving an average annual export of around 100 t/yr. By 1852 the stocks of
bLche-de-mer in Fiji from the most productive waters in Bua, Macuata and Ra were near
exhaustion. At this time the high chief of Fiji, Ratu Seru Cakobau, ordered two sloops from
the USA and Australia, and tried raising the revenues for these by bLche-de-mer harvesting.
The chiefs= entire army of several hundred men was deployed in over 100 canoes, but failed
to collect more than 32 t of bLche-de-mer, far less than the price of the vessels. A party of
Fijians was then dispatched to New Caledonia to collect enough bLche-de-mer to pay for only
one vessel. Anecdotal accounts from the period suggest that some reefs recovered quickly
from this over-exploitation, whereas others showed no signs of recovery, even after 20 years
(Adams 1988).

Bayliss-Smith (1974, 198031) has suggested that in the tropical Pacific an island=s carrying
capacity for human populations was primarily a function of the land area available and the
volume of taro (Colocasia spp. and Cyrtosperma spp.) that could be cultivated. Competition
for coastal fisheries resources may also have been a limiting factor, especially on small
islands where human population densities were high. The impact of western civilization on
Pacific populations was initially disastrous in many locations, leading to wholesale human
population decline through disease, slavery and migration (McArthur 1967).32 Indeed it is
likely that fish catches from reefs and lagoons declined in many locations in the Pacific
during the nineteenth century as human populations were reduced. In contemporary Pacific
populations imported foodstuffs have partially replaced fish in the diet in many locations, but
demand is still high and will continue to grow as human populations increase. Subsistence
and commercial reef and lagoon fisheries must therefore continue to play an important role in
the food security of the South Pacific, but it is generally believed that comparatively little is
know about them, particularly their sustainability. As this paper has attempted to demonstrate,
much information is available from a variety of sources other than contemporary fisheries
literature.

Finally, it is important to note too how new Atraditions@ have arisen in the Pacific during the
past two centuries since European expansion. One of the most striking is the advent of
Christianity, and in particular the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Adherents of this creed
follow a broadly dietary code (based on verses from the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus
in the Old Testament) that proscribes, among other things, fish without scales (sharks) and
shellfish. Islands such as Mussau, discussed earlier, where the population is now
predominantly Adventist, are havens for marine molluscs, crabs, lobsters, prawns, and even
higher vertebrates such as turtles and dugongs, which are also not eaten. Clearly, such islands
may be important from a conservation and management viewpoint as refuges and reservoirs
for breeding populations. The concept of closed areas or marine reserves as a management
tool for reef fisheries is gaining increasing interest globally (Roberts & Polunin 1991, 1993)33.
Islands in the Pacific with large Seventh Day Adventist populations could be factored into
marine reserve studies and management strategies. This final point is included to encourage
fisheries managers in the Pacific to develop and adopt novel multi-disciplinary approaches to
coastal fisheries management, by making use of a broader range of information sources as
inputs into the management process, particularly where conventional fisheries data is either
poor in quality or completely lacking.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank Tim Adams and Reg Sanday, of the South Pacific Commission, for their comments on
this paper, and Dr Virginia Butler of Portland State University, Oregon, for help with
understanding the archaeological literature. The Overseas Development Administration of the
Government of the United Kingdom financially supported most of the preparation of this
work through their assistance to the South Pacific Commission's Integrated Coastal Fisheries
Management Project.

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