Archaeologists uncover clues to early abundance of marine animals

Biologists can count how many marine animals are present in the Alaska Maritime Refuge to gauge their current and future well-being. But what were their abundance, distribution, and changes hundreds or thousands of years ago?

Windows on the Past

Turning to archaeologists, they found a few windows to the past.

Archaeologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and their associates braved rain, wind, and icy hands to meticulously dig into and record the past on key islands.

Answers from early Alaska Natives

The biologists and archaeologists asked the questions, and the early peoples of Alaska are helping to answer them through the tools, animal bones, shells, and other clues they left behind in ancient village sites and middens.

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Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Program

Rat Island (Rats and beads: legacies of contact between Aleuts and Newcomers)

Buldir Island (Use of remote seabird island includes whale bones and extinct mammal)

Attu Island (Digging into population growth)