Edible Seaweeds and shellfish^

[Quest 129]

I remember watching a slide show of a guy in my mountaineering club who paddled round the Shetlands in 1972. He is now in his late eighties but an interesting piece was when he and his fellow paddler got stormbound he managed to get hold of a young shag chick which they cooked to help with their food shortage. Pretty hard going and they got cramp in their jaws eating it.

[Steen Johansen]

Some (sea lettuce (Ulva Lactuca) and gutweed (enteromorpha intestinalis)) are best just rinsed and eaten raw or lightly boiled or dried.

........

One thing to watch is that one species which looks like a seaweed is strictly speaking an algae (so I've been led to believe) and best avoided, so positive identification of the edible ones is probably the way to go.

Ulva lactuca is a green alga. Actually seaweed is a loose colloquial term for macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae (Wikipedia).
And yes like you say we can eat most of them. One species is poisonous and that is the one to look out for but I have been told it is very rare.

[David Reekie]

There's another decent book available since this thread was first penned. It's one in the River Cottage series, especially about seashore food. Covers shellfish, crustacea, seaweed + plants which live on the shore. Also covers the legal aspects which are utterly arcane and impossible.

I can't remember the name (despite getting it for Christmas!) but I'm sure you can find it easily enough on the River Cottage website.

[Owen]

The Ray Mears TV series "Wild Food" had quite a lot on the shore line. It's replayed endlessly on "Dave" if you mist it. There's a book of the same name, far to big to use as a field guide but very good.

[PeterG]

Years ago on Foula, I tasted the legendary 'sat-on mallie's egg'. A tasty dish with the bones and beak just slightly crunchie. I think you have to collect them before the feathers get tickly. Shag au vin by comparison, is best avoided, as the oily fishy repeats over the next few hours were less than pleasant. However, neither of these dishes is likely to fall into a kayakers hand. Better stick to the shell fish and tide line herbs.

A shelduck once flew off the beach when we landed, leaving a fresh egg behind, since it had no way of collecting it and taking it back to its nest, I reasoned that it was fair game. Boiled for about 6 minutes it was perfect, not to hard, not too runny.

[David A]

On a recent paddle to the island of Lismore a late breakfast was supplemented with some mussels and whelks collected from the shore.

Kirsty and Craig, foraging the shore for shellfish.

Ready for eating.