Todd Braje is a professor of anthropology at San Diego State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 2007 and has worked along coastal regions around the world for over 15 years. Braje has conducted research on a variety of archaeological sites ranging from 12,000-year-old shell middens (ancient trash piles) and stone tool scatters to 19th-century fishing camps. His interests center on the archaeology of maritime societies, human-environment interactions through time, and maritime migrations. Braje is a co-editor of the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. His most recent book is Shellfish for the Celestial Empire: The Rise and Fall of Commercial Abalone Fishing in California.