Would you eat shellfish from the marina?

[wotayottie]

Just back from a cross-channel trip. The marina where I visited a friend is full of really large oysters and mussels. Ignoring the marina rules about fishing, my friend remarked "At low water I take the dinghy around the edge and gather as many as I want. If they were polluted, they wouldn't be so large and healthy." Even so, I declined his offer. Was I passing up on a good thing?

No you werent. There is a big difference between the diseases which affect mussels etc and those human diseases which they merely transport. And mucky bu**ers like me often use the sea toilet in marinas - yes I know I should not but you do sometimes get caught short. Needs must, the devil drives.

 

[25931]

Shellfishing is an important industry in the Algarve and anything sold legally has to be officially treated BUT for several weeks there has been a complete ban because the pollution (which is caused mainly by atmospheric conditions) is so great that the depuration processes are insuficient.

 

[albinvega]

So I guess the answer is not to eat shellfish from a marina unless you are starving!

 

[AngusMcDoon]

So I guess the answer is not to eat shellfish from a marina unless you are starving!

If you were that hungry it might be safer to eat scraps from the marina skip. There was a perfectly good nearly full bottle of salad cream in my marina's skip last weekend. I was tempted...

 

[stevebrassett]

They breed mussels in Menai & wash 'em in Conway & sell 'em in France. Both areas are full of thousands of boats using sea toilets. Quite good thro flow from tides mind. We regularly eat Cockles from Aber Menai, a very popular anchorage.

Mr McDoon, I was offering an opinion, which was why I used those words. Do I need your permission first?

Quite right - anyone who risks their health on advice given in a forum without making further checks is daft. I always tell people my advice is worth exactly what they have paid for it.