Catching shellfish - razor clams

[MASH]

When aground at low tide we must be sitting on vast amounts of shellfish in the sand/mud. I was wondering how to catch razor clams - thought I'd seen Hugh Fernley-Wotst using a tub of salt on TV.

Any experts out there? Any links to shellfishing sites?

 

[BrendanS]

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php?C...rue#Post1425097

 

[KREW2]

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Catching shellfish - razor clams

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Don't waste your money on salt, take an old football boot cut it into strips and eat that.

 

[vyv_cox]

There was an article in PBO afew months ago. As far as I remember they tried salt and a special narrow spade, blade only about 3 inches wide and about 15 inches long. The clams dig down very quickly so the spade operator needs to work fast. Salt was sometimes successful, sometimes not. On balance I think the spade won.

 

[DaveS]

Quite agree. They were on the menu in the pub in Barra a few years back so I tried them for novelty value. Awful things! I'm convinced the staff were having a laugh at the daft tourists who would eat anything...

 

[jimbaerselman]

Philistines! They taste very similar to oysters. Razor clams are considered a great delicacy in N Spain, together with Goose barnacles. Now there's a faintly un-attractive piece of grub for a tender stomached Brit.

Galicians have great festivals where both are consumed by the barrel load. Mind you, the smell of rotting shell fish from the heaps of inedible parts a few days later is a bit of a turn off.

 

[DaveS]

Well the ones I had were nothing like oysters. I may have been unlucky but the closest equivalent I could think of was rubber.

 

[jimbaerselman]

Are we talking about the same animals? Razor Clam Picture
Yes, more rubbery than an oyster, eaten alive in Galicia, maybe with a dash of lemon or a sprinkling of chili powder. If they dry out then lots of flavour is lost.

 

[jimbaerselman]

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Any links to shellfishing sites?

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They're not quite the same as the European species, but the Americans have turned clam fishing into a sport. You won't believe this:

http://www.funbeach.com/attractions/clams/index.html

 

[DaveS]

That's the beast. The ones I had certainly weren't alive, though. I reckon they'd been cooked. Maybe that toughens them up?

 

[spootshooter]

hi there,

I've just started to get interested in harvesting razor clams on the west coast of Scotland. Forget waiting for the spring tide to reveal the beds, buy yourself a good drysuit or semi-dry, learn to snorkel to the MLWS mark, usually quite shallow <2m.

You need to learn how to identify the razor clam in the sand. You'll see it's siphon protruding above the sand, while it filter feeds. Looks like two pencils together, one with a slight t-towel holder look.

Pour your salt slury mix onto the wee fella, wait a moment and he'll pop up out of the sand for you to bag. The increased salinity irritates them and dislodges them from their burrow. Now, whether or not you can eat them, that's another matter. So long as the razors are harvested from a FSA class A bed, they are fit for human consumption. Class B, they need 42hrs depuration in sterile sea water and class C, unfit for human consumtion.

Catching them and eating them are two different things. Anyway, I hope I've given you a quick insight into the world of Spoot Shooting!!

Spoot, an old Scots name for a spurting razor clam!

cheers and feel free to ask any more questions and I'll try and help.

[image]http://www.marlin.ac.uk/gallery/index.php?spgmGal=Species/Mollusca&spgmPic=155&spgmFilters=#pic[/image]