And they weren't much more than 2000 years ago.
BTW, these speakers are probably correct about the North Pacific, but they are wildly incorrect about the North Atlantic.
North Atlantic shores are not at all hospitable for human life.
No kidding. That's why the Original Thirteen Colonies died out.
"....North Atlantic shores are not at all hospitable for human life....."
AU CONTRAIRE. See if you can dig up an old NOVA episode about the "Lost Red Paint People". There was a thriving pan-Atlantic culture that rimmed the Northern Atlantic all the way from the Mediterranean, up the West coast of Europe, right around to Newfoundland and Labrador, in upper Paleothic to Neolithic times. The people hunted whales and other marine mammals, went to sea in huge canoes, traded around the North Atlantic, and buried their dead in ochre.