Fishing Down a Prehistoric Caribbean Marine Food Web: Isotopic Evidence From Punta Candelero, Puerto Rico

In recent years, a debate about the degree to which prehistoric fishing practices may, or may not, have adversely impacted local fish communities has re-emerged in the Caribbean archaeological and fisheries literature. Through carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses of radiocarbon dated human skeletal remains from southeastern Puerto Rico, the present work identifies a significant (one to two trophic level) decline in the mean trophic level of human-consumed fish over a period of six centuries (fifth–eleventh centuries AD). While the extrapolation of such results to a pan-Caribbean scale would be foolhardy, this work provides complementary evidence that, at least on a local scale, fishing pressure brought to bear by prehistoric peoples may have had the capability to “fish down” marine food webs in a manner akin to that seen in many global fisheries in more recent years.