A new global study of Indigenous oyster fisheries co-led by Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History anthropologist Torben Rick and Temple University anthropologist and former Smithsonian postdoctoral fellow Leslie Reeder-Myers
Over thousands of years, Indigenous peoples harvested billions of oysters sustainably on the East and West Coasts of North America and on the East Coast of Australia, according to a recent global study. It was not until the arrival of European colonizers that oyster populations began to plummet.
A recent study proves indigenous people in North America and Australia sustainably harvested oysters for thousands of years providing hope for a dying industry.