This research focuses on the possibility of a coastal migration and/or colonization route via the Queen Charlotte Islands during the period 15,000-8,500 years before present. It assesses two aspects of the changing environment in the Islands during this period: sea level change and available edible biomass for early human populations. Potential food sources of an early coastal migrating population would likely include intertidal edible molluscs. The research examines high-stand deposit locations ranging from 1 to 18 metres above sea level for evidence of edible mollusc shells. Dating of the samples collected will provide a record of high-stand elevations across the Islands, thereby providing a data set with which to model isostatic sea level response on the British Columbia continental margin.