How did the indians sustain mollusk populations

[beargrass]

I am very amazed at the indian notion of life balance and how they viewed their place in the world. A key sign that I have found a nice indian campspot on the holston and clinch river drainage is finding massive amounts of river mollusks the indians ate and discarded. How did they not eat these easily preyed defenseless creatures into extinction? Did they actually practice conservation?...I guess the same question could be asked about many species of food the indians liked but muscles are so easy to harvest and so sensitive to enviromental changes that I would have thought this would have been a big problem. What was the indian notion of conservation?

[MidlandMan]

The shellfish were not threatened as the available habitat was sufficiently large enough and the human population relatively small to cause serious damage to the mollusk population. My experience with "primitive" Indians in the Amazon tells me that there is less harmony with nature than the romantic notion often associated with Indians. To begin with many of these cultural ethnic groups consider themselves to be at war with nature. Also there is little of the cause and effect rationality that we take for granted. The "primitives" can cause limited damage to their natural environment with the technology at hand. When they have access to chainsaws and firearms they cutdown and kill everything! With no thought as to why. When they look around and there is no more game and no forrest and the rivers are silted up they blame a Brujo or Witch in another community.

[Flyjunkie]

Over here in So Cal, the Chumash & Tongva exploited the Shellfish populations for food for thousands of years, and from the Archaeological record there were a number of times they would deplete local colonies of shellfish. Changes in what was taken show over time, from easy to acquire near shore types early on to more labor intensive Types later on. However, the record also shows that as time went on, the Chumash and their Ancestors realized they were depleting the stocks and developed a a broader food base as the centuries went on..

Because earlier on they focused on Shellfish, shoreline Marine mammals, and sea bird rockeries ..(there is even evidence that on San Clemente island, the Indians could "call in" Dolphins/Porpoises near shore, then disorienting them, spear them as well). but as these local resources were thinned out, the Indians were forced to expand their Food sources and started taking Fish from the shore and offshore as well.. this evolved along to where the Chumash & Tongva would fish for Bluewater species like Tuna, Ocean Sunfish, Swordfish, marlin, etc.. there is even some evidence they occasionally targeted Whales.

Yes The Indians could and did deplete local shellfish populations.. but I am certain they realized what they were doing in a great many instances and stopped short of wiping them out...

[jbridered]

My favorite place to hunt is a shell midden. I wonder how long it takes for shell to turn hard or become a fossil. The shells at the midden are 3 times as thick as the clams we have here today.

[tomclark]

They didn't sustain 'em they just ate 'em. Ate 'em by the moundful than then moved furthur out and out and finally .....moved on. On our coastal midden sites the shells (THE major foodsource) show depletion and taking of much younger shells during the late states. They overfished just like we did/do,. Intermittent campsites would naturallly replenish, IMHOP.