But where Fijians spear lots
of herbivores such as bird - beaked parrotfish,
few fish remain to prune back the region's
seaweeds, a blanket term for many
types of big algae.
This «kelp highway hypothesis» suggested that highly productive kelp forests supported rich and diverse marine food webs in nearshore waters, including many
types of fish, shellfish, birds, marine mammals, and
seaweeds that were similar from Japan to California, Erlandson and his colleagues also argued that coastal kelp forests reduced wave energy and provided a linear dispersal corridor entirely at sea level, with
few obstacles to maritime peoples.