However, even with the significant uptake in herbivorous invertebrates, other lines of archeological evidence indicate that kelp ecosystems were maintained in the local environs. In the same deposits where large quantities of sea urchin and abalone remains were unearthed in the NAVS and FRBS sites, we recovered 1662 elements of fish, of which 92% were identified as cabezon (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus), rockfish (Sebastes spp.), and lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus)

( Gobalet, 1997:320, 325). These species are closely associated with nearshore kelp ecosystems in California ( Paddack and Estes, 2000). In addition, harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), which also feed on kelp fisheries, are common constituents of these historic deposits ( Wake, 1997). In contrast to the archeological findings of Aleutian Island sites, where LY2109761 purchase alternate states of nearshore fishes and harbor seals (serving as proxies for kelp ecosystems) are juxtaposed against sea urchins and limpets ( Simenstad et al., 1978:407–409), we find red abalones, sea urchins, limpets, nearshore fish, and harbor seals integrated this website into the same discrete deposits

dating to the 1820s and 1830s ( Lightfoot et al., 1997:356–409). In sum, there is little question that the maritime fur trade in the North Pacific had a tremendous impact on maritime environments. Not only did commercial hunting eradicate some marine mammals from local waters, but the RAC’s extensive harvesting of sea otters from Siberia to Alaska and into California may have transformed nearshore benthic habitats, particularly the density and distribution of kelp forest ecosystems and their associated fisheries. However, it appears that the consequences of sea otter hunting varied considerably across space and time – from the Aleutian Islands to Southern California (Steneck et al., 2002). Our preliminary study of the eradication of sea otters from northern California waters suggests that a complex spatial pattern probably resulted, in which kelp forest patches became interspersed with spaces dominated by abalone, sea urchins, HSP90 and other

invertebrates. This complexity was observed in the first systematic survey of kelp vegetation in central California in the early 1900s, which was undertaken prior to the “recovery” of local sea otter populations and the commercial fishing of sea urchins in the 1970s (see Dayton et al., 1998:317–319). This survey did not record any evidence for kelp in a few coastal places from San Francisco to Point Sur (McFarland, 1912). However, in other places they found discrete “beds” or patches of giant kelp and bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana). In some cases they were quite lush: “beds of these kelps many acres in extent, so dense that rowboats can scarcely be forced through them, are common all along the California coast” ( McFarland, 1912:201).