seafood safety

[tonymac]

does anyone know of a good website that is concerned with seafood safety, mainly in connection with bivalves(where they are safe to eat etc). I live near the coast in cornwall but have always been cautious, seems like another waste of a great resourse.
Any tips would be great.
thanks all and keep up the good work.

 

[Jodie]

Hello

I just wrote a lovely long reply full of interesting facts that I had picked up while
searching Google but unfortunately the system decided that I wasn't logged on
anymore so I've lost it.

Woe is me

Anyway, I recommend searching for CEFAS, DEFRA and the Macological
Society of London (I may have spelled the last one incorrectly but I found it
while searching for keywords like bivalve edible safety collecting harvesting
etc. and variants thereof).

Jo

 

[xylaria]

I would ask local surfer. They have great local knowledge of where the effulent pipes are , and the effect of local currents. I have a simerlar problem in stoke with slag heaps and pottery waste, I ask old people where it was actually dumped not where the government bodies say was.

 

[tonymac]

unfortunatley all surf and government sites relate to bathing quality, as a surfer i will take the odd risk, i am not prepared to maybe feed my family poison, government and tourism are to closely linked in this part of the country(cornwall), bathing quality outweighs bivalve toxins, great suggestion nontheless but where is it safe to collect shellfish, thanks for the sugestion though.

 

[Bigman]

Aren't we being slightly over cautious here?

I have eaten many vaieties of fish etc from the shores of Devon and Cornwall and still do.

One of my favourite places was a sewage outlet where I would catch "Black Bream" from the shore.

I have suffered no ill effects!!

 

[tonymac]

not concerned with eating fish which is normally safe, its the mussel beds I would love to harvest, and as they are filter feeders they are prone to pick up any bugs or chemicals that are in the water, I have found out that it is possible to purge the shellfish in salt water but have not tried this yet, maybe you are right about me being a little over cautious, perhaps I may try a few and see what happens.
thanks Tony.