Deep-sea fishing for tuna dates back to 42,000 years ago

Humans' deep-sea fishing skills dates back to 42,000 years ago, when they started hunting for large delicacies like Tuna fish, a new study has revealed.

The study by the team, including archaeologist Sue O'Connor, Chris Clarkson and Rintaro Ono unearthed strong evidence about the high level maritime skills possessed by early humans during excavations at East Timor.

The researchers found more than 38,000 bones from almost 2900 individual fish in Jerimalai Cave.

"What the site in East Timor has shown us is that early modern humans in island south-east Asia had amazingly advanced maritime skills," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted O'Connor as saying.

"They were expert at catching the types of fish that would be challenging even today," she said.

She asserted that the first people who arrived in Australia at least 50,000 years ago must have possessed boats because they had to cross hundreds of kilometres of deep ocean channels to get here from southeast Asia.

Being able to catch deep-sea fish would have assisted them on their journey, via the many stepping-stone islands, such as Lombok, which did not have many animals.

Around 50 percent of the fish bones in the oldest area of occupation in Jerimalai, dated between 38,000 and 42,000 years old, came from ocean fish, such as tuna and trevally while the rest of them were shallow water species, such as parrot fish.

The people also consumed small amounts of marine turtles, rats, bats, birds and snakes.

Dr O'Connor also said that it was not known how they caught ocean fish, as no fishing gear was discovered in this section of the dig.

"They may have been caught using hooks or nets," she said.

"Either way, it seems certain that these people were using quite sophisticated technology and watercraft to fish offshore."

The study has been published in the journal Science.