Going Shellfish digging today.
Ususally the local gvnmt. posts red tide signs up, and that is really the only way I can tell if I am going to die if I eat hte shellfish I collect.
Does anyone know of anyway to tell if shellfish have concentrated amounts of red tide poisoning?
For now, the Oregon Coast has a red tide hotline at 800-448-2474. Maybe you can find one wherever you are?
However, in a world without hotlines, red tides don’t affect the bays (other than possibly the outer third or so). I just dug cockle clams last weekend and they tasted DELICIOUS! Easy, too, they live so close to the surface you can reach into the sand and grab them with your bare hands.
This got me thinking. A world without hotlines is also a world without tide charts. Coastal peoples must have danced with the ocean’s complex rhythms closely enough to develop an intimate awareness of its movements. I find it hard to fathom a relationship like that . . . but I can dream.