We have been transforming our world for as long as we've existed. To make better choices today, we need to understand the impacts of past choices and collaborate with local communities.

Fishing is a major source of food and a way of life for people living in coastal eastern Africa today. Although archaeological evidence shows that people have been fishing on the coasts and islands of eastern Africa for hundreds of years, the rich biodiversity and the future of fishing in this region is threatened by climate change, overfishing, and other anthropogenic factors. My research contributes to our understanding of past fishing practices, such as information about the types of fish and aquatic environments that people exploited over time, which provides important historical context for today’s fisheries. For example, recent work in collaboration with international and local biologists, conservationists, and fishers combined data from the archaeological record, underwater surveys, fish landings, and oral histories to help dentify reef fish at risk of local extinction.