Safe Dining on Ketchikan’s Beaches

By Scott Walker

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

When the Tide is out

The Table is set

Important rule… #1

Eat NOTHING that you find dead.

Important rule… #2

• Unless you are starving follow game regulations.

If you take it… eat it

Important rule… #3

• Don’t eat animals that eat plankton (filter feeders).

• Don’t eat animals.. that eat filter feeders.

Why Not?

Bivalves Clams

Plankton Blooms !!

This includes:• clams, mussels, cockles

and animals that eat clams and mussels.

Filter Feeders or Bivalves eat small plankton that make a poison that can KILL YOU.

Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP)

• Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) results from eating shellfish which have fed upon toxic PHYTOPLANKTON.

• During ‘blooms’, filter-feeding shellfish such as clams and mussels accumulate the poisons from the plankton when feeding on them. The dominant species of phytoplankton associated with PSP are the Alexandrium family.

PSP

• PSP is caused by a group of related toxins. The best known of these is saxitoxin (SXT).

• The majority of the toxin within shellfish is normally found within the digestive gland.

• COOKING DOES NOT DESTROY THE PARALYTIC SHELLFISH TOXIN.

What Can Happen ???

• Numbness or tingling of the lips and tongue, which spreads to the fingers and toes

• Loss of muscular coordination • Paralysis

• Inability to breathe• Nausea • Vomiting• Diarrhea

• Abdominal pain • Paralysis of respiratory muscles

• Respiratory arrest

DEATH

Clams, cockles, mussels and any other bivalves.

• Butter clams• Horse Clams• Cockles• Blue Mussels• Littleneck Clams• Softshell Clams

What Not to Eat #1

A few exceptions – Geoduck Clams

• Geoducks Clams – eat meat only

Remove Viseral Ball and eat meat only.

Horse Clam

Geoduck

• Scallops – eat abductor muscle only

A few exceptions – Scallops

Rock Scallop

Rock Scallop

Abductor muscle Legal Limit is 5

Snails that DRILL into clamscalled – DRILLERS.

• Moon Snails• Dogwinkles and other small snails• Hairy Tritons – toxic salivary gland

What Not to Eat #2

These animals feed on plankton feeders.

They drill holes into bivalves.

Safe Snails

• Only eat snails if you know whither the snail is a DRILLER or a SCRAPER

• If it eats bivalves – WATCH OUT

• No – moonsnails, dogwinkles

• Yes – some small snails on kelp

or rocks

Yes

Safe snails eat algae and are called SCRAPERS

Safe snails - Limpets

•Scrape limpet off of rocks

•Remove meat

•Remove visera or not

•Put in soup or cook over fire

Foot

• Acid Kelps

• Sea Stars

• Sea anemones

• Sea Slugs

What Not to Eat #3

'tochni'

Do eatlimpets

shrimpFish eggs

Sea urchins

scallopsabalone

Kelp

DO EAT – Radular feeders

(Scrapers). Shelled mollusks that use tongue (radula) like rasp to

scrape off algae.

Some Snails

Sea Cucumbers

Fish

Crabs

Octopus and Squid

Herring and Smelt

OctopusLook for rocks with clam shells and crab debris piled around it.

Dig under rock to pull out crab

Kill octopus by cutting off the head.

Remove tentacles with knife

Remove skin

Cut tentacles into thin disks

Pound with rock

Fry in skillet or cook over fire.

Sushi

Shrimp

• 85 species

Found under the kelp and in the eelgrass at lower tide levels.

Crabs

• Red Rock Crab

Black Tip

Boil for a short time and eat !

• Dungeness Crabs

Shore Crabs

Don’t eat the viscera (guts) of the Dungeness crab. It may have PSP concentrations. The lungs are also toxic.

6.5 Inch minimum

Males only

Remove Gills and guts

Gills are

toxic

No Crab Butter

Fish• Filet if big enough

• Use small knife to gut fish

• Small fish – toss in soup pot

• If near a stream – small salmon can be caught and put into soup pot

Fish• Shiner Perch• Gunnels

• Pricklebacks

• Tide Pool Sculpins

• Herring, smelt, sand lance (needle fish)• Fish eggs? WATCH OUT

Fish Eggs

Usually Safe

Herring Eggs on Kelp

Boil or eat fresh

ChitonsPry off rock

Cut “foot” off of animal

Pound with rock

Use in soup or fry in fire

Edible Foot

Sea Cucumbers

Sea Cucumbers

•5 longitudinal strips of meat

•Scrape off meat with flat stick or knife

•Fry in skillet or cook over open fire on stick

•Use as stock for soup

Abalone

3.5 inch minimum size

Cut out animal with knife

Remove any viscera (guts)

Pound meat with rocks to soften

Fry in skillet or cook in fire

Inside a sea urchin are 5 skeins of roe.

Boil or eat raw

There are two species – red or green.

Sea Urchins

KelpsSea Lettuce – green, thin blades

•use in soup

•boil for 2 minutes

•dry in the sun.

KelpsSugar Wrack – brown wide fronds (leaves)

•use in soup

•boil for 2 minutes

•dry in the sun

Contains sugar alcohol called mannitol

Kelps – Large brown kelps•Most of the large brown kelps are edible

KelpsEel grass – green blades

•use in soup

KelpsPalmaria (Dulse) – brown short plades

•use in soup

•Mix with food.

Dulse contains calcium potassium, magnesium, iron, iodine, manganese, copper, chromium, zinc, and vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, C and E.

KelpsPorphyra spp (Nori) – thin delicate blade

•use in soup

•Mix with food.

20 different species – Black Seaweed

Kelps Desmarestia spp (Acid Kelp)

•DON’T EATContains

Sulfuric Acid

Hair Kelps

Beach Plants

• Beach asparagus

• Goose Tongue

Fern Fiddleheads

Boil twice