I love every episode. I always learn so much from you. If I only lived closer, I'd take the class. I'd have to fly out, so I could be home same day.. I'm loving this series, please keep it going. Hey Diane 👋🏼
Slurping that oyster, I felt that! Slightly briney seawater, clean and fresh. I love oysters! Mussels? Can't beat in a simple garlicky, buttery linguine.👍 thank you for these wonderful videos sir!
Awesome, my childhood was with my parents foraging mussels from rocks at wave crash zone, mussels would be up to 6 inches , so many after we ate mom would pickle them in vinegar and spices, just yummy. Love your videos. Brings back memories
Me and my girlfriend have been thinking about freediving for a bit now and these videos gave us the confidence and knowledge to finally pull the trigger. Thanks for putting out this series Kevin! I first discovered you from one of Matts videos and loved how much knowledge and info you have on all things outdoors. Cheers from SF !
Dr. Kevin, Another fine episode again! And they only keep getting better. Fantastic camera too! I made sure to watch all advertisements, as I heard on another off topic channel, it’s good for the channel you enjoy. Thanks for yours!
Another great video! I got some kayaks recently for doing this exact thing. There's an island I've had my eye on for a while now in a north-bay bay. I'm thinking of waiting till boat fishing opens, then going out with a friend to dive and fish all day and camp out on the island overnight.
Right on Ash! Make sure the island is open for camping though. Some islands have pretty strict rules around here. I am sure you will have a great time!
They are awesome! I left it out of the vid but I found some more rocks with much larger ones at the end of my dive. I left those for future clients though.
Love the channel....2 ideas......when steaming the mussels.....try using Bold Ginger Ale instead of white wine....and.....With the smaller green crabs....get a bunch, crush them, boil them, strain the broth, and use the broth for rice, or as a base for a good seafood bisque
Have you considered selling your daily catch to restaurants? Supply a restaurant a few times a week and rake in the money. You gotta slang your warez for phat lootz.
I would need a commercial license to legally sell my catch. As of now I have a guide license but not a commercial license. Honestly, I prefer to earn a living teaching others to sustainably harvest. To me it is a more rewarding way to make a living. That being said, when I cook I do like to remind folks that they will never get seafood this fresh and local and sustainably-harvested at any Michelin start restaurant!
hey boss love your videos im also a sea urchin diver i dont waste my time with the purples because we have a lot of bull kelp plus we have 3 kinds greens reds and purples
Thanks for watching! Where do you live that has plenty of bull kelp? I've seen good populations of it recently on the Central Coast but certainly not on the North Coast after 95% of it died off in the last 10 years. How often do you see green sea urchins?
There are great white "tax men" in our waters up and down the coast. But yes, out in the deeper waters towards the mouth of this bay (far from the shallows where I was) they definitely have a presence. Lol I don't dive in that area and would never take someone there.
@@catchncookcalifornia1574, thank you so much for your videos! I consider going for a dive to that bay with my kids soon, but I'm not sure where the safe zone starts. How deep in your opinion do the sharks go into the bay?
Great video! I loved your dog featured in the beginning :) Very cool to see the native oysters, they are now on my list to try! Are the oysters only present in the bay, as opposed to the coast?
Great! I do not unfortunately. But Green Dean has a great youtube channel from back east about plants and if you want some good reads "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" by Yule Gibbons (and anything else he has written) are great resources for the East Coast area.
I fill the bucket with sea water before I leave the beach so that the shellfish are transported in the same water they were living in. I definitely prefer sea water as it will keep them alive and fresher longer. I do not usually use a bubbler for bivalves but for crab, everyone swears by the bubbler method. Maybe I should discuss this more in my next video!
They are throughout the state but I tend to go for the ones in colder northern waters as that is where they tend to also grow them commercially and the water in the bays seems a bit cleaner the further north that you go.
Yes and same with oysters. This is why there is a closed season for them compared to other larger species of bivalve shellfish. During months where they filter-feed on naturally occurring toxic planktons these toxins accumulate in the gut of clams, mussels, scallops and oysters and while the gut can be removed from larger shellfish while still retaining enough meat to eat, with smaller shellfish there would not be enough meat leftover to make it worth it. Since we eat the whole organism (including the gut) we could potentially get a concentrated dose of toxins (if we eat them during the closed season). As a result, we always call and listen to the pre-recorded and often updated messages on the biotoxin hotline first (800-553-4133) to confirm that shellfish are safe in that county when we want to plan a foray and we do not eat the gut and dark meat of any bivalve during the warmer months (usually May 1st-Oct. 31st). Good question!
Question: How do you know if an oyster is dead when you eat it raw? I know when you steam something and it doesn't open, it's not good to eat. How do you tell it's not good to eat when it's raw?
Great question Kelly! The answer is complicated. If you were to pick a mussel, clam or oyster and leave it in the sun to die like the gulls do, what happens? They open up! So in reality when bivalve shellfish die they usually open (quite the contrary to what we are all told about the ones that don't open being dead. For the most part when cooking mussels, clams or oysters, the ones that do not open are actually perfectly safe but require a bit more time. If you cook them a little longer than the rest, 90% of the time they will open and be totally fine. The reason they say do not eat them if they don't open (I think) is that once they have been sitting on ice at the store for days they could die and the meat could be so dry around the mantle that it could stick the shell together giving it the appearance of being alive. When you dig a clam they could also have been dead and full of mud when you got them and you just didn't notice when you threw them in the boil. Either way you would not want to eat them. For oysters, if they are closed up tight that is a good sign, when you shuck them just give them a smell. A dead clam, mussel, or oyster does not smell good at all and is pretty easy to distinguish from the good ones. Now you have got me thinking that I need to discuss this in a video! - Cheers!