We conclude that: (1) regardless of the cause, immediate actions are required to avoid further population reductions of commercially exploited crabs in southern California, (2) predation traces are a rapid, cost-effective method to assess otherwise data-poor fisheries, and (3) the inclusion of fossil data provides key new insights for modern resource and fisheries management.įisheries management is vital to ensure the sustainability of fisheries in the face of continued climate change and overfishing ( Harley et al., 2006 Allison et al., 2009 Ekstrom et al., 2015), particularly for vulnerable coastal communities that are reliant on marine resources ( Dolan and Walker, 2006 Cinner et al., 2012 Whitney and Ban, 2019). There were fewer crab predation traces on modern gastropods than their Pleistocene counterparts, revealing reductions in crab abundances today compared to the Pleistocene. We compared crab predation traces on living individuals of the crab prey gastropod, Tegula funebralis, to Pleistocene individuals from the same regions in southern California. Here, we provide the first use of predation traces to assess the status of fisheries (crab). Fossil data provide pre-anthropogenic baselines for data-poor fisheries, yet are underutilized in fisheries management. 2Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canadaĭespite growing concerns over global fisheries, the stock status of most commercially exploited species are poorly understood.

1Departments of Biology and Anthropology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.

Download the predator scar