Hello Coastal Fishers and Foragers it’s time for your November/December 2015 coastal update (at long last!)
Heads up in December I've got a SF Coastal fishing & foraging walking tour on Saturday December 5th at 12:30pm and a rare Mega Low Tide tour in Princeton Harbor. (Tues Dec 22nd at 12:45pm) I only do seven of these per year so if you’re interested, my main focus on that tour is looking at mudflat invertebrates (ghost shrimp, piddocks, fat inn-keeper worms and horseneck clams). It’s always fun and I notice there are still a few spots left so if you want to come do it, now’s the time. Also makes a great gift! (ahem...)
Now Where Was I?
First off… sorry for the delay here… it’s just been a very, very busy time. Our seafood business (Sea Forager Seafood CSF) has been going strong and I’ve been simultaneously on dead-line for my soon to be released (Spring 2016) Sea Forager’s Guide to the Northern California Coast. Not to mention we have two kids and all that that requires!
In any case, I’ve been itching to get in an update here to keep everyone abreast of the crab situation and also to check in about what has been a very strange and noteworthy year.
Dungeness Crab
OK. Here’s the deal. The ocean temperatures in our area this year have been really really warm. Really really warm waters in this area can cause all kinds of problems (read below).
What’s Going On?
So the Fish and Game Department working in conjunction with the Health Department decided to shut down the sport fishing and commercial fishing openers because of high amounts of demoic acid found in the viscera and (more importantly) in the meat of Dungeness crabs and rock crabs. I don’t recall the actual numbers but suffice to say some of the infected crabs were way over the allowable amounts. (Rock crabs were actually through the roof bad, but this shouldn’t surprise anybody because they eat a lot of bivalves) The condition that demoic acid causes is called PSP (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning) and it can in some instances be fatal. To be clear the last fatality from PSP in California happened in 1982. Since then the health department has done a great job setting quarantines and testing for contaminated shellfish, and if you want to get the latest updates don’t call me, call this number:
1-800-553-4133
This is the same number I give out on my walking tours. It’s the OEHHA biotoxin hotline. I want to point out that I’ve seen numerous people fishing for and eating rock crabs all summer in the bay and on the coast. To my knowledge no one has gotten sick from eating them. Just keep this in mind amidst all the hysteria.
PSP
PSP is caused by a naturally occuring phyto-plankton called Pseudo-nitzschia. In warm water this phyto-plankton blooms and causes red tides. Pseudo nitzschia does not tend to reach the densities that produce the “crimson tides” of the Gulf of Mexico, where everyone looks at the water and immediately knows what’s going on and this is what makes it so deeply insidious. In any case, demoic acid tends to show up in filter feeding organisms like bivalves (clams, scallops, mussels, oysters) and small fish (anchovies and sardines). Dungeness crabs are opportunist carnivores and one of the things they really like to eat is clams (incidentally, this is probably why they taste so good—most animals that eat clams are tasty) and because of this they can pick up the toxins second hand. Rock crabs, as mentioned above, have tested even higher for demoic acid because (I hypothesize), they eat more bivalves than dungies.
Closure
So what I hear at the wharf is this: the DFG and the Health Department will be testing the crabs once per week. This whole “closed for 180 days” thing is just what they are saying so they don’t have to post new closure information every week. Now keep in mind that these toxins take about a month to leave the body of a crab (this is not science, this is what a crabber told me on the dock—but he’s a pretty smart guy, degree in biology and he swore he read it in a report). But regardless of whether that’s true or not, you have to figure they are going to err on the side of caution. They also are going to face a minor insurrection if they don’t allow the sport fishermen to go out and catch crabs for a week before they open the commercial season. (Sport fishermen always get a week or two to catch their crabs before the commercials start thinning them out—and that folks, is the time you want to be in the water or snaring from shore).
The short answer here is that the crab opener will probably be put off for at least one month, maybe more. What we need is rain. Rain and less sunlight. And guess what? We’re getting both. As the water gets colder and the rain cycles it around a little, the nasty diatoms will die off or move away to warmer waters. As the winter progresses there will be less sunlight, the water will get colder and the crabs will hopefully get rid of the toxins. That’s the hope anyway. Honestly, this is the first time a crab season has been impacted by demoic acid in California, so it’s not like anyone knows exactly how long it’s going to take. All I can say is I really (really) hope this is just an el Nino related thing, and not a trend caused by global warming.
I hope that answers your questions on this subject. Now, let’s move on to the brighter side of global warming (gallows humor here folks, it’s all deeply troubling) ie: the strange and exotic species showing up in local waters!
Small Fish
The PSP scare concerning crabs and bivalves also applies to small fish like sardines and anchovies. But to my knowledge small fish are only problematic if you’re eating their guts. (That’s what the health department says). But who eats fish guts? (other than people who should probably be removed from the gene pool?)
Just kidding. It takes all kinds. In any case, don’t eat the fish guts if you’re worried about getting PSP. And remember, more people have been catching and eating mackerel and jack mackerel this year than I’ve ever seen on this coast. And not a case of PSP, to my knowledge, in any of them.
Mackerel
As alluded to above, it’s been an insane mackerel season and it’s not showing signs of stopping! To be clear, this isn’t a fish we typically catch a lot of in SF Bay but the last report (before the rains came in a few days ago) from agent 007 (Champion de la Banana) was that folks were “Killing them at Fort Point and Fort Baker” piers. I stopped at the Ferry Building to get my artisanal hipster coffee on the way to work and saw these guys on Pier 14.
(Technically its illegal to use more than 3 hooks inside the bay…)
I would imagine there’s a few at Pier 32 (Red’s Java House Pier) right now, if you want to drive and park rather than take the BART to your fishing spot. Agent 003 (Mark S.) reports he caught fifteen small macks in one hour on Fort Point yesterday (Sunday). So the rain evidently did not drive them out. One note, a lot of these mackerel have been in the 6-8 inch range.
In any case. No need to bait the Sabiki rigs like these guys in the video were doing, unless you just like doing a lot of extra work for no reason at all.
Sardines
There’s been a few sardines showing up in Priceton harbor (HMB) but these fish haven’t moved in shore. They were caught out by the jaws by my buddy Mikey “Cave Man” who works with the local Greek lampara boat there. It’s nice to know they’re still around. Hopefully they’ll move in close to shore soon. Though with the water getting colder now, they’ll probably vacate the area.
Cockles and Mussels Alive Alive-O
One can make a good case for continuing to catch and dine on small fish right now, but bivalves? Not so much. Too bad… there are some nice low tides coming up. We’ll just have to bide our time and hope the water cools down. (See crab section above).
Exotics
Although mackerel are uncommon in our area, they’re not exactly unheard of. But bonito and bluefin tuna? Yeah that’s rare. Sorry to report the bluefin are now gone. If nothing else, I would’ve at least liked to have seen one. I got a couple of offers to go out and target them, and I don’t begrudge anyone who did it, but for me it’s kind of hard to justify. One friend of mind said “hey it’s hook and line fishing, and we aren’t even making a dent in the population.” But then I heard a biologist say: “what difference does it make of you shoot a tiger with a crossbow or a rifle? You still killed a tiger.”
I’m on the fence here. As tempting as it was, and as little impact as I think the local hook and line fleet has on that population, it’s pretty hard to run a sustainable seafood biz and at the same time go out and kill the poster child of unsustainable fish species.
I got this photo off of Ken Jones' awesome fishing blog. Ken is also the founder of pierfishing.com. If you haven't checked these out, drop everything! This excellent bonito article comes to us from Jon at castandspear.com
But bonito?! There are a lot of bonito on this planet… and they were absolutely thick off of Monterey and Santa Cruz this past month. In fact they were still getting them 6 miles out of Princeton harbor before the rains moved in last week. Hopefully that will pick up again soon. As far as eating them goes, bonito are definitely best pan seared or raw. If you grill them don’t grill them all the way through. An over cooked bonito fillet tastes a bit like a hamburger made of catfood.
Surf Perch
Black perch (aka: pogey) Embiotoca jacksoni
Despite their culinary failings I am just really into the surfperches. They’re so much fun to catch. In fact… I’ve even gotten a little better at cooking them. Eschewing the fry pan for the steamer. It may be a bit counterintuitive but as it turns out the best thing to do with a mooshy fish is to steam it. Why resist the moosh? Embrace it and roll with it. I steamed a couple of surf perch this month, (using the typical Asian method as shown on youtube) and they came out… pretty good. Or maybe “not bad” would be more accurate… or passable. Yes, they were passable. As good as a steamed rockfish? Not by a long shot… but passable nonetheless.
Sea Weed
There really isn’t anything happening on the seaweed front and there won’t be till spring. Check in then.
Herring
I’m definitely not doing any herring tours this winter, but I may continue to send out e-mail or text alerts. I’m sort of undecided. It’s a lot or work to do it for free. Honestly, just calling (or driving!) around to find out where the fish are and sending out texts to everybody takes time… which is a commodity I don’t have a lot of anymore (oh for the halcyon days of youth!) In any case just to be safe, if you really want to be on the herring list, you may want to make sure I have your details. It’s possible I may offer it as a paid service… 25 bucks for the whole winter gets you two updates per week (or something like that), but I’ll only do that if I get an overwhelmingly positive response. It’s actually a pretty cool service to have your own personal herring spotter plane (me) for a mere 25 bones—if I do say so myself.
OK. That’s going to do it for your Nov/Dec 2015 coastal update. If you are still looking for a sustainable seafood source, be sure to check out my new pickup locations for Sea Forager Seafood, we are probably near you now (or let me know a good place to be)! Members get 50% off tours too. Check back in January for more stuff on herring, crab and sturgeon. Until then… see ya at, on, or in the water!
Kirk-out