In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

he recent collapse of fisheries around the world (Jackson et al. 2001) from the overharvesting of resources, expanding coastal development, and dumping of various industrial and domestic waste products, has confirmed what many researchers in both the natural and social sciences had already suspected : humans are drastically influencing marine ecosystems to the point that many may never fully recover. The islands of the Caribbean are not immune to these impacts and are playing an increasingly important role in helping to determine the degree to which marine taxa have been altered by human activities over time. As continuing research in archaeology, history, and ecology shows, islands in the Caribbean have experienced a variety of impacts to marine environments by different human groups over the course of at least seven millennia. What effects did humans have on these once pristine environments, and how did this differ between populations? An increasing amount of evidence has shown that a number of extinctions of both terrestrial and marine vertebrates have occurred, much of it related to human occupation (e.g., Adam 2004; James 2004; MacPhee and Marx 1997; MacPhee et al. 1989; Morgan and Woods 1986; Steadman and Jones 2006; Steadman and Stokes 2002; Steadman et al. 1984). In fact, within the past 4,500 years (well within the range of human settlement), at least 37 mammalian species have gone extinct (Morgan and Woods 1986). The extinction rate for mammals 147 7 Human Impacts on Marine Environments in the West Indies during the Middle to Late Holocene Scott M. Fitzpatrick, William F. Keegan, and Kathleen Sullivan Sealey We badly need an historical ecology of sea monsters to determine the pristine abundances and sizes of megafauna before they were fished, and to provide the basic data for modeling their former ecological interactions with other, smaller species and their effects on biological habitats so that we can figure out what we have lost and decide what to do about it if we want to. JACKSON AND SALA 2001:279 T GRBQ335-3427G-C07[147-164]qxd 2/18/08 7:35 AM Page 147 Aptara Inc. during the Late Holocene is 122 years per species, quite high when compared with an extinction rate of 299 years per species during the late Pleistocene (Morgan and Woods 1986). Fitzpatrick and Keegan (2007) have taken an historical ecology approach to analyzing the impacts of humans on insular biota in the Caribbean, stressing the need for a far deeper historical perspective to more effectively understand the magnitude of recent collapses and help restore marine ecosystems. Here we focus specifically on illustrating how marine resources were utilized by prehistoric Amerindians, historic European colonists, and modern populations, and how these changes can be tracked archaeologically, historically, and biologically . By synthesizing the known data from prehistoric sites ranging from the earliest period of colonization dating to ca. 4000 BC to more modern times, a picture emerges that intimately ties the level of impact to population size and technological expertise. Current research suggests that smaller and fairly mobile Archaic huntergatherer -forager groups during the Middle Holocene had an impact on marine resources, but to a lesser degree than terrestrial ones. Subsequent ceramic-making horticulturalists who migrated from South America beginning around 500–200 BC, however, focused heavily on marine resources and the cultivation of manioc (Manihot esculenta). Each of these activities in some fashion affected sea turtles, finfish, and mollusk populations . After European contact, larger vertebrates, especially turtles, were heavily targeted and are now largely ecologically extinct in the Caribbean. In conjunction with overfishing, development, pollution, and a host of other anthropogenic activities and natural processes, there is an ecological shift to habitats devoid of larger vertebrate taxa which has had a profound impact on coral reef structures and fisheries in the region. In addition, it is probably the smallest islands in the Caribbean such as the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and Grenadines that have, and will continue to be, the most susceptible to human impacts due to their high levels of biodiversity, extensive coral reef systems , and attractive marine resources. ENVIRONMENTAL BACKGROUND The Caribbean is the world’s second largest sea and seventh largest body of water. It encompasses an area of 2,754,000 km2 and stretches 1,700 km north-south from Florida to Panama and 2,300 km east-west from the Antillean chain of islands to the Yucatán (Figure 7.1). The West Indies are typically subdivided into three main island groups: the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, and...

Share