Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
We have a town down in the southern part of the state. Their restaurants are known for their conch foods. All I know is the town smells to high heaven from it. I used to hate going down there to meet my husband.
One time he brought home a couple of shrimp caught closer to shore than where they normally go. He kept them alive and when he got them home, he cut them open and showed me why they go so far out to make their catch. We were sitting at the table when he did this. I barfed all over the table when he cut them open. Our harbors and waters close to shore are so polluted, that any fish or other seafood caught there are so contaminated, that commercial fishing vessels are not allowed by the FEDS to fish within a certain limit.
He also did the same with a cod fish that had been caught close to the shore. Good heavens, any person fishing off a bridge within the city limits on the eastern shoreline is getting a feast of parasites. I hope they are just practicing "catch and release."
Our beds of clams and other seashells are tested by the state here. When you do clamming for a living, you have to put a tag on what you caught, telling you where you dug them, and when. The same goes for oysters. So these folks here who clam for a hobby in the summer, I hope they know where they are doing this. As I kids during WWII, all of us would dig them and bring them home for a meal. Our mothers really appreciated our efforts as we had a lot of meatless days. But our waters weren't so polluted then. And clamming wasn't regulated as closely as it is now. We recently had a major very large clam bed polluted out by the airport due to a jet fuel spill. It will be years before that bed recovers. That was a major blow to the clamming industry here. When I buy fish, I don't buy bottom feeders like flounder. When there is crap thrown overboard, it will sink to the bottom and get eaten by bottom feeders. Fortunately responsible boat owners and commercial shipping do not do this. There is a major big fine if caught. Small boat owners can have their boats confiscated in some areas. And those plastic six pack rings are a death knell for our wildlife in our waters. No thank you. Just take a look at today's wildlife in William's Sound in Alaska. They are still paying the price and cleaning off birds that dive for their food.
