Archaeological data from coastal shell middens provide a window into the structure of ancient marine ecosystems and the nature of human impacts on fisheries that often span millennia. For decades Channel Island archaeologists have studied Middle Holocene shell middens visually dominated by large and often whole shells of the red abalone (Haliotis rufescens). Here we use modern ecological data, historical accounts, commercial red abalone catch records, and zooarchaeological data to examine long-term spatial and temporal variation in the productivity of red abalone fisheries on the Northern Channel Islands, California (USA). Historical patterns of abundance, in which red abalone densities increase from east to west through the islands, extend deep into the Holocene. The correlation of historical and archaeological data argue for long-term spatial continuity in productive red abalone fisheries and a resilience of abalone populations despite dramatic ecological changes and intensive human predation spanning more than 8000 years. Archaeological, historical, and ecological data suggest that California kelp forests and red abalone populations are structured by a complex combination of top-down and bottom-up controls.

Historical ecology has revolutionized our understanding of fisheries and cultural landscapes, demonstrating the value of historical data for evaluating the past, present, and future of Earth’s ecosystems. Despite several important studies, Indigenous fisheries generally receive less attention from scholars and managers than the 17th–20th century capitalist commercial fisheries that decimated many keystone species, including oysters. We investigate Indigenous oyster harvest through time in North America and Australia, placing these data in the context of sea level histories and historical catch records. Indigenous oyster fisheries were pervasive across space and through time, persisting for 5000–10,000 years or more. Oysters were likely managed and sometimes “farmed,” and are woven into broader cultural, ritual, and social traditions. Effective stewardship of oyster reefs and other marine fisheries around the world must center Indigenous histories and include Indigenous community members to co-develop more inclusive, just, and successful strategies for restoration, harvest, and management.

Despite growing demographic diversity in the United States population at large, in the 50 years that the National Science Foundation has been keeping demographic statistics, there has been a continuing lack of diversification in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce, leading to growing frustration and a compelling need for both equity and inclusion (Bernard & Cooperdock, 2018).Within the geosciences (Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean, and Polar Sciences), there is a current wave of energy and attention to issues of equity and social justice in geoscience spaces that is long overdue. Calls to action (Ali et al., 2020;Morris et al., 2020), publications (e.g., Chen et al., 2020;Marín-Spiotta et al., 2020), personal stories (#BlackAndStem (#BlackAndStem was created by Stephanie Page, PhD; twitter: @ThePurplePage)), new centers (e.g., AGU Ethics and Equity Center), and emerging movements (URGE: https://urgeoscience. org/) are pushing the edges and reforming approaches to broadening participation. This is encouraging, as past strategies to accelerate demographic and ethnocultural representation have not succeeded as hoped. Many existing approaches portray the lack of diversity as a problem of unequal access (e.g., via affordability or as a consequence of structural racism), and/or one of unequal interest, with evidence existing for both perspectives (Dutt, 2020; Posselt, 2020). One mechanism to broaden participation in the geosciences is to

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