First of all, thanks everybody
)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oolie
Excellent again! It's really important to emphasize as you have that most "japanese" restaurants in the US do not have access to the quality of seafood that Californians with access to the coast have. Especially important is the point of using salty water to prevent excess bacterial presence when rinsing/processing your catch.
I don't think either of those points can be emphasized enough, so great job for including them.
Also. It's good that you disclaimerize free diving, as it's so different from scuba, and quite the dangerous hobby. I worry for anyone who takes it up, as it's so common for someone to be here one day and gone the next.
I also hated uni for a long time for similar reasons, but the moment I tried well-cared-for uni, I changed my tune. If enough locals start hunting them I expect to see the rebound of the kelp beds.
As usual, keep up the good work.
|
Thank you
I always enjoy your comments.
Agreed 100% on CA seafood. We're really lucky with tuna right within boat range, YT within Kayak, and a pretty impressive broad variety of coastal reef fish within swim/cast range.
Funny you mention the saltwater thing. I wanted to clarify the regs before promoting it too much, but I've started bringing a really sturdy Silicon ziploc with me out on my dive board and cleaning the urchins/scallops on the water and filling the rest of the bag with saltwater for transit home. The raccoons in my back yard are less thrilled, but it's 100% easier to manage and clean up, and all of the scallop roe goes back to the reef and the rest as food.
I've found afterward there's barely any better way to sneak up on a sheep head than once a giant cloud of their favorite food has been stirred up
The bigger ones still make it pretty damn sporting through.
As for freediving itself, as I said, it's dangerous but with easily mitigated dangers. Most of the original dangers came from people hyperventilating to extend their breath hold times and basically purge their blood of CO2 before diving. That lowers the urge to breathe, making it more comfortable.... But what's been learned is that it also makes your blood less capable of holding oxygen, increasing your likelihood of passing out.
A good number of freedivers (myself in that camp) never get close to blackout danger because we only go down for 45" to a minute at a time, and aren't getting into hypoxic territory. We take long recovery intervals, and we never dive without a trained buddy who knows how to spot and rescue a blackout.
I think the problem with any sport that has a machismo element to it, is that finding new dive buddies can be a challenge when a number of people think having a buddy is to just show up, shake hands, and swim out with a loose assumption you're going to just hang out near each other.
I tend to fall on the far opposite of that, as my wife and I agreed when I got a kayak that it wasn't a good idea to even launch alone for fishing.... Never know when the surf has different plans for you and your 100lb tupperware
Interestingly enough on the Uni, I think what actually is the problem is the *purple* urchin. Not a lot of people give them much notice because they're way lower yield than the reds, but supposedly pretty good. This guy actually forages them quite a bit and (I highly recommend his channel if you're into similar content)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slLTwe5lIbE they seem to be quite nice.
I was just reading from Stephanie Mutz (
https://www.seastephaniefish.com/) that apparently the Purples often end up out-competing the reds because they can lie dormant way longer and consume a lot quicker. It's definitely apparent when you're down there. I see about 10 to 1 ratio of reds to purples. I always end up smashing a few for burley when I'm out.