Obligatory Holiday Oyster Post!
Dec. 23rd, 2008 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jacktellsliesMonkfish, however delightful and distressing and delicious, most likely ought to be avoided. I'm displeased that we sell it. Besides being overfished, they're bottom feeders and thus caught by trawlers, those weighted and dragged nets that devastate the ocean floor, destroying life and habitat indiscriminately.
Instead, I recommend oysters. They increase the surface area in the bodies of water where they live, which creates more homes and hiding places for other aquatic creatures, and act as natural filters, removing pollutants and harmful algae. A healthy oyster bed can filter a bay several times over in a day. Unfortunately, pollution and aggressive overfishing have resulted in dwindling wild stocks, leaving the ecosystems of which they are a vital part ever more vulnerable. The wild caught ones can be harvested using methods as destructive as the catching of monkfish, but unlike most commercial fish farms, the side effects of oyster farming are overwhelmingly positive. Supporting this sort of aquaculture supports the health of the bodies of water from which they are drawn. And, as it happens, we're at the height of the oyster season now. Try some. Few luxuries lend themselves quite so well to environmental activism.
Instead, I recommend oysters. They increase the surface area in the bodies of water where they live, which creates more homes and hiding places for other aquatic creatures, and act as natural filters, removing pollutants and harmful algae. A healthy oyster bed can filter a bay several times over in a day. Unfortunately, pollution and aggressive overfishing have resulted in dwindling wild stocks, leaving the ecosystems of which they are a vital part ever more vulnerable. The wild caught ones can be harvested using methods as destructive as the catching of monkfish, but unlike most commercial fish farms, the side effects of oyster farming are overwhelmingly positive. Supporting this sort of aquaculture supports the health of the bodies of water from which they are drawn. And, as it happens, we're at the height of the oyster season now. Try some. Few luxuries lend themselves quite so well to environmental activism.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-23 06:11 pm (UTC)I don't like shellfish as a rule. I had to eat a clam and a mussel to be polite, and ugh. The texture, bleh. I will eat scallops. And while I eat lobster, it's an expensive delivery system for butter and garlic, so normally I'll pass and get teh steak instead.
However, I promised myself that if the opportunity arises to try an oyster when I don't have to pay for it--I will. Because you never know. That's how I discovered I like eel and octopus.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-23 06:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-23 09:00 pm (UTC)i love mussels tho. and clams. and lobster. and oh god scallops. and crabcake.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-23 09:32 pm (UTC)http://earlofgrey.livejournal.com/297532.html
http://earlofgrey.livejournal.com/337065.html
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-23 11:33 pm (UTC)DSC02220, originally uploaded by RoegsterFlorence.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-23 11:48 pm (UTC)