Its date of approximately 14,500 years ago, combined with its location in southern Chile, implies an entry into the Americas significantly earlier than 14,500 years ago — perhaps 18,000 to 20,000 years ago — to allow time for the population to move from the entry point to the far south of the continent.

Bluefish Caves fits into this pattern by providing the earliest date for human presence in the region — not in the Americas proper, but in eastern Beringia, the gateway to the Americas.

A date of approximately 24,000 years ago from Bluefish Caves is earlier than any of the well-accepted pre-Clovis sites in North or South America, and it is consistent with the Beringian standstill model in which the founding population spent an extended period in Beringia before the dispersal into the ice-free parts of the continent.

The geographic and temporal relationship between Bluefish Caves and the other pre-Clovis sites creates a plausible narrative: people in eastern Beringia from at least 24,000 years ago, maintaining themselves through the Last Glacial Maximum by exploiting the abundant megafauna of the mammoth steppe; gradual dispersal into the Americas as routes opened at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, beginning perhaps 18,000 to 20,000 years ago; reaching the interior and east coast of North America by 14,000 to 15,000 years ago; and arriving in the far south of South America by 14,500 years ago.