Rick, Torben C., Andrews, Adam J., Béarez, Philippe, Festa, Marcella, Fossile, Thiago, Hudson, Mark, Janßen-Kim, Melanie, José Juan-Jordá, Maria, Lambrides, Ariana B.J., LeFebvre, Michelle J., Luthra, Alisa, Newsom, Bonnie, O'Connor, Sue, Quintana Morales, Eréndira, Spiess, Arthur, Zancan, Claudia, Zimmer, Caitlin, and Elliott Smith, Emma A. (2026) Global origins of tuna and billfish fisheries reveal thetransition from coastal access to oceanic exploitation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 123 (43). e2512066123.

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Abstract

Ocean ecosystems have played a crucial role in people’slives around the world for millennia. However, questionspersist about when, why, and how people first beganremoving biomass from offshore habitats and establishedfisheries in distant, oceanic environments. We explorethe antiquity and evolution of tuna (Thunnini) and billfish(Istiophoridae/Xiphiidae) fisheries, two groups of fishesthat occur around the world, are economically significant,and are ecologically important open ocean apex predators.The earliest archaeological evidence of fishing for tunaoccurs ~44,000 years ago and billfish at ~10,000 yearsago, with early fisheries for some tuna species appearingaround the world by 3,000 to 1,000 years ago. Most earlyfisheries are in areas where tunas and billfishes could beaccessed relatively close to shore (e.g., submarine canyons)and/or where these fishes may come inshore seasonally orduring warm ocean events. Early tuna and billfish fisherieswere often linked to ceremony/ritual, alongside advancesin maritime technologies. With few exceptions, sustainedand intensive commercial exploitation of pelagic predatorsin offshore and oceanic habitats is a late development inthe human past, occurring primarily during the last 200 y.Our findings document a long- term continuum of humaninteractions with global marine ecosystems spanningthousands of years, including significant differencesbetween the timing and pathways by which people becamedominant ecological drivers in nearshore compared tooffshore/oceanic ecosystems.

Item ID:	94422
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1091-6490
Copyright Information:	Copyright © 2026 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
Date Deposited:	19 Oct 2026 00:51
FoR Codes:	43 HISTORY, HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 4301 Archaeology > 430101 Archaeological science @ 100%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1307 Understanding past societies > 130703 Understanding Australia’s past @ 100%
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