Kelp Highway

Were America’s first inhabitants Japanese fishermen?

Erlandson has been working with marine biologists for the last few years and believes Japanese fisherman could have been following the kelp highway which would have flourished even during the ice age. The kelp would have been attractive to all kinds of fish because it provides shelter and as well as giving nutrients to other sea creatures.
Mike Graham, a kelp expert who helped Erlandson, told New Scientist, “It’s quite likely that Japan’s ancient inhabitants were familiar with these systems before they came over. What people saw, as they moved, were familiar species, familiar ways of life, familiar associations.”

Well, if anyone would ever try to eat a garibaldi, it would be a Japanese fisherman.

2 thoughts on “Kelp Highway

  1. Interesting. You might fine Prof. Sandy Lydon’s writings on this subject, also interesting. His organization, “Pacific Currents”, shares this sort of insight and a lot more. We saw his presentation of the excellent PBS documentary at Monterey Bay Aquarium early this year, called “The Japanese in the Monterey Bay Region; A Brief History”. It was an amazing talk that got me thinking about the possible link between ancient Japanese explorers that followed the Pacific currents from their islands, over here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.