Shellfish questtion

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Shellfish questtion
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dozy

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 1

Posted: Tue Jan 16, 07 12:30 pm Post subject: red tide

Hi
Im totally confused about how to add to this discussin.I have been reading about red tides and how dangerous they might be to all animals and humans.Is there antwhere you can get information of them occuring in England or is this too rare an event because the water is too cold etc. Is it only to worry about in places like Florida

StuP wrote:

There are some health concerns with shellfish, particularly filter feeders such as mussels. Some areas of the coast are occasionally prone to red tides - algal blooms. These algae produce toxins that accumulate in filter feeders and can, in extreme cases, cause paralysis. The South East coast of Scotland where I grew up is prone to these - the blooms appear in the Firth of Forth and drift south along the coast.

It's worth checking with the relevant government agencies for safety advice for your area. Good places for info are:

https://www.shellfish.org.uk/

and:

https://www.food.gov.uk (search for "shellfish poisoning")

I personally have eaten limpets, winkles and mussels collected from the beach but always after checking with the authorities.

guyandzoe

Joined: 12 Jan 2007
Posts: 78

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 07 4:51 pm Post subject:

I know I'm very late to this one. But....

There is a public right of shellfishery around the UK shore. Shellfish do not 'belong' to anyone. However, where, for instance someone keeps/farms oysters or say,mussels then they may be granted a Several Order which literally (litorally) severs the public right to take those shellfish.

Our coastal waters are graded for shellfish health/purity - for instance here Little Loch Broom is a Grade A shellfish water. The grade will determine if shellfish can be commercially gathered and if so what degree of depuration (if any) is required.

Defra (the fish labs I think) monitor shellfish and will close any waters considered to be unsafe. Notices will appear in the papers and should be in local post offices too. PSP (paralitic shellfish poisoning?) and DSP (something to do with diahorea) are the main problems (and to do with red tide).

You have a Fisheries Inspector in Grimsby who will be able to give you local advice as well as tell you what you can or cannot do.

guy

gnome

Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 730

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 08 8:52 am Post subject:

shellfish tend to go off very quickly, so there can be a problem with food poisoning. there is an old trick for "cleaning" filter feeders such as cockles and mussels - as soon as you get them home, put them in a bowl or bucket of water with a layer of oatmeal at the bottom. leave them in for a few hours, and they will eat the oatmeal, and excrete out anything nasty, so they are totally safe to eat. personally, i've never found it necessary to go that far though. some people are more prone than others.

a word of caution though. because shellfish become toxic when they go off very quickly, it is essential that you cook them alive. i know many people think that cruel, but that's the correct and safe way to prepare them. if it is dead before you cook it, you are taking a risk. that's why i won't buy cockles or mussels from supermarkets ready prepared - i've seen the "professional" cockle pickers at work on Morecambe Bay, and they gather vast numbers of cockles in string sacks, then pile them up by the shore waiting to be picked up by the lorries and vans. shellfish dont survive long out of water, and a few hours in the hot sun will certainly kill them. people employed to pick cockles thse days know nothing about shellfish or tides for that matter - they are just cheap labour.

You can usually tell if a cockle or mussel is dead - it wll frequently be slightly open, and won't close. if a cockle does not open within a few seconds of being dropped into boiling water, it is also most likely dead, and may be unsafe to eat.

one last note - be wary of tides, and don't wander out too far. some areas can have shifting patches of quicksand that are quite lethal, so stay close to the land.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46212
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 08 9:42 am Post subject:

i never have liked large flat areas ,like morecome ,and find rocky coast sites best for gathering .this has it's own hazards but decent boots and common sense make it fairly safe if you study the tides and dont get cut off on a rapidly reducing rock or slip and fall.
in some places even fairly large fish get stuck in rock pools but small ones can also be tasty
mixed fish ,invertibrates ,seaweed and shore plants can make a great meal
somewhere i have technicium figures for uk over the lat 30 years ,it is about 10 % of peak levels at last count but there are a few places where a day on the mudflats will give one a years exposure level
te is mostly in the shells and not in the meat and iirc one would need to eat several kilos of the wrong winkles per day to get ones dose limit .as the thorpe plant is offline (40 tons of reprocessing acid solution leaked into the digester hall oops )and the uk has plenty of pu there is no need for them to use the discharge pipes for the leftovers of plutonium production so the te load discharged has dropped to almost nothing

gnome

Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 730

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 08 12:19 pm Post subject:
yeah - some people are a bit put off by the nuclear power plant just down the road at heysham - but i say " a bit of radiation didn't do spiderman any harm" what is more of a worry is the bird sanctuary. when the tide is out, the bay is full of sea birds, and it is their droppings which make the water quality so poor - and what the cockles feed on. many people won't even swim in it.

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