Shell middens as indicators of long-term distributional pattern in strombus gigas, a heavily exploited marine gastropod

摘要

Shell middens of the economically important gastropod Strombus gigas in the Exuma Sound system of the central Bahamas were located on the shores of islands near tidal Inlets between the Exuma Sound and the Great Bahama Bank. The volume of shell Middens was directly correlated (r = 0.944) with the abundance of juvenile conch in the Shallow surrounding waters (log-log relationship). Radiocarbon dates for shells collected From the bottoms of large middens indicated that these shell accumulations reflect a his- Tory of fishing in the region dating back more than 400 yrs.