Does anyone go Seashore foraging?

[NotBirdseye]

Just piqued my curiosity. The sea has a huge bounty of animals, but also plantlife... though often much of this is close to the shore (i.e gets daylight) or floats. Does anyone go foraging for these foods to supplement their usual onboard diet? (I appreciate British waters are somewhat cold and a decent wet suit would be needed!)

Generally the top answer I'm getting back is: 'Only seaweed exists' and I am quite sure (pun!) there's more than that in the ocean.

 

[prv]

Mussels are the obvious one to me, though I've never gathered them while sailing.

Pete

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Mussels are the obvious one to me, though I've never gathered them while sailing.

Pete

Yes, there are lots of shellfish; mussels, cockles and razorshells being the obvious edible ones.. However, I'd be very doubtful about eating anything from waters in England; they're all filter-feeders, and so concentrate anything nasty in the water. I think that commercially they are kept in tanks of clean sea-water to purge them before being sent to market. In Scotland (away from the rivers Forth and Clyde) I'd consider it, but I'm not a big fan of shellfish any way, so it doesn't take much to put me off!
It is important to be careful about filter-feeding shellfish, though - there are perfectly natural sources of very nasty neuro-toxins in water which can be concentrated by filter-feeders to the point where they are poisonous. I'm sure some of the commercial fishers on here could tell us more!

 

[Baddox]

I live 5 minute’s walk from the sea and often forage and fish there. Some seaweeds make better eating than others.
As already said you can find shellfish like mussels; others such as winkles and limpets are edible if a little unpalatable. My favourite, it to find a rocky area uncovered at low water and look for lobsters. They can be caught from the shore in pots or “cleeking” in the warmer months, easter onwards is a good time to start.

 

[NotBirdseye]

Yes, there are lots of shellfish; mussels, cockles and razorshells being the obvious edible ones.. However, I'd be very doubtful about eating anything from waters in England; they're all filter-feeders, and so concentrate anything nasty in the water. I think that commercially they are kept in tanks of clean sea-water to purge them before being sent to market. In Scotland (away from the rivers Forth and Clyde) I'd consider it, but I'm not a big fan of shellfish any way, so it doesn't take much to put me off!
It is important to be careful about filter-feeding shellfish, though - there are perfectly natural sources of very nasty neuro-toxins in water which can be concentrated by filter-feeders to the point where they are poisonous. I'm sure some of the commercial fishers on here could tell us more!

This is half the reason I was after plants, but I guess it depends on the local sea water quality.

No sea lettuce?

 

[prv]

My parents pick mussels occasionally in Cornwall with no particular ill effects. I suspect the water is cleaner now than when they were doing it forty years ago - there was a lot of investment in small sewage pumping stations a while back to replace all the village drains running straight out to sea....

I might be a bit more circumspect if there were mussels in the Solent, but we don’t have the rocks for them anyway.

Pete

 

[Hydrozoan]

Samphire, as a seashore plant.

 

[Neeves]

Apologies,

But you need to move your domicile.

In home waters, Sydney, we catch king fish, trevally, bream, eel, squid, octopus, Taylor

Offshore tuna, dolphin fish

Tasmania, eel, crayfish and oysters


We don't know anything about seaweeds sufficient to know which to eat - which I suspect is a common problem.

Jonathan

 

[NotBirdseye]

Apologies,

But you need to move your domicile.

In home waters, Sydney, we catch king fish, trevally, bream, eel, squid, octopus, Taylor

Offshore tuna, dolphin fish

Tasmania, eel, crayfish and oysters


We don't know anything about seaweeds sufficient to know which to eat - which I suspect is a common problem.

Jonathan

Some seaweeds will give you a bad stomach but these are few and far between, most are quite safe. None of them will kill you. The only known variety I know of that may give you a bad stomach is Acid Weed, but due to the sour taste, you're probably not going to eat an awful lot of it at any rate.

 

[michael_w]

The French have a name for it. Peche a pied.

 

[HissyFit]

Crabbing seems a worthwhile exercise. Kids with a line bated with meat seem to be very successful off local peers.

 

[Hydrozoan]

The phytoplankton rather than macroscopic plants constitute by far the largest proportion, overall, of marine plant biomass.

But on the plant side, there's also the laver of Wales and you've probably eaten carrageenan, extracted from seaweed and used as an emulsifier - but AFAIK both are now commercially exploited rather than commonly 'foraged'. I don't know if any of the common brown or red seaweeds are eaten - they probably are or have been, somewhere - and once one is any distance from shore I think of macroscopic plants there's only the large oar weeds (which can be made into a food additive, I believe, but which have also been widely used in history as a fertiliser - and thus as an 'indirect' source of food).

 

[Robin]

Samphire as already mentioned butalso sea spinach from the beach at Studland was a favourite, coupled with a fresh sea bass caught in Old Harry race on a slowly trolled rubber sand eel at full tide flow (don't eat the rubber eel) occasionally 'gleaned new tatties left by the picking machine in the fields atop the cliffs , side of the cliff top path to Old Harry but not always there due to crop rotation perhaps. Cockles for sure, Poole cockles are great, use to hang them in a string bag off the boat for 24 hours to flush them through. winkles a plenty but not a fan. Learned from a Dutch boat in Salcombe to catch 'Smelt', tiny fish deep fry cooked like whitebait, yummy too.

 

[burgundyben]

Samphire, as a seashore plant.

I'm told there is samphire here on Isle of Wight but I've not spotted it.

Its one of my favourites, the bloke that told me won't reveal location. Or maybe he's bullshitting.

 

[Hallberg-Rassy]

It's fairly seasonal. July & August-ish.

Bear a thought for whether any species that might be endangered in your killing spree.

 

[johnalison]

I'm told there is samphire here on Isle of Wight but I've not spotted it.

Its one of my favourites, the bloke that told me won't reveal location. Or maybe he's bullshitting.

There is plenty on the East Coast. I haven’t picked any for many years but it is very palatable.

 

[mjcoon]

Crabbing seems a worthwhile exercise. Kids with a line bated with meat seem to be very successful off local peers.

Ah, but would you trust a "local peer" with your kids? And we are often advised to abate the meat...

 

[mjcoon]

I think of macroscopic plants there's only the large oar weeds (which can be made into a food additive, I believe, but which have also been widely used in history as a fertiliser - and thus as an 'indirect' source of food).

Isn't there a northern flock of sheep that get most of their sustenance by grazing on seaweed? That must be a bit more direct source!

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Various types of seaweed feature in the Cantonese cuisine of Hong Kong. I have no idea what species they are, and wouldn't recognize them if they bit me! I'm not fond of them - the best that can be said is that they're an acquired taste! My wife likes to add them to the sweet soups that feature in that cuisine.

 

[Hydrozoan]

Isn't there a northern flock of sheep that get most of their sustenance by grazing on seaweed? That must be a bit more direct source!

Quite possibly - and salt marsh lamb is highly esteemed, of course.

If the OP wanted a carnivorous challenge, tow-netting for Calanus finmarchicus, one of the principal prey of North Sea herring, might fit the bill. Sir Alister Hardy noted that boiled quickly in sea water, strained and fried in butter, it made a pleasant ‘shrimpy’ paste on toast. But whilst it is a relatively large copepod, it is just a few mm long so it would be the relish of a very hardworking gentleman.