At almost the same time that the terrestrial hunter-gatherer way of life emerged inland, along Chile’s extensive coastline other groups relied on the coastal environment as their main source of subsistence. These marine hunter-gatherers learned quickly to take advantage of the sea’s potential as a source of fish, mollusks, crustaceans and seaweed, as well as marine mammals such as sea lions, seals and even whales.
The groups usually lived in small kinship bands and moved around between different coastal ecosystems, with brief incursions inland to obtain specific resources that were available there. In any case, given the rich resources available on most of the Chilean coast, they often had to travel less than their land-based contemporaries.