Losing Our Past: Climate Change and Island Archaeology

Climate change is here, now. Record droughts, increasingly severe storms, rising average temperatures, and a growing disconnect between ecological processes all point to the damage that increased greenhouse gas emissions are having on our world's climate.

We are just beginning to realize the effect that climate change will have on our lives, what we can do to reduce them, and what it's going to cost us. One cost of climate change, however, can't be measured in currency, jobs lost, or property damage. It is the loss of our shared human heritage. Climate change's effect is being felt on archaeological resources around the world, particularly on coastal sites that contain some of the oldest records of humankind.

Riding the Kelp Highway -- The Channel Islands Link to the First Americans?

We all know the story of how people first came to the Americas, right?  Well, maybe not. Research published in the last 10-15 years has suggested that our old view of human colonization from Asia is wrong - and studies of human prehistory on the Channel Islands could help us understand how this colonization progressed.

The Oarfish: The Messenger from the Sea God's Palace

Last fall Jasmine Santana, an instructor at the Catalina Island Marine Institute, was snorkeling in about 20 feet of water.  She noticed a very long ribbon-like fish lying on the ocean floor and recognized it immediately as an oarfish.

Santana knew that an oarfish was a cool and unusual find, so she dove to the bottom, grabbed it by the tail, and dragged the dead fish onto the beach. After recruiting some help, she and other CIMI crew managed to wrestle the 18-foot long oarfish onto the beach at Toyon Bay.

About a week later, a second dead oarfish washed ashore near Oceanside, about 40 miles north of San Diego.