[Leica] Oysters

[lrzeitlin at aol.com (lrzeitlin at aol.com)]

 Tina,
This is why oysters were so cheap. Keep your medical insurance paid up. The 
following is an extract from "PUFFIN: An Intracoastal Waterway Log or 28 
Days Before the Mast." I do hope conditions have changed since I published 
this a couple of decades ago.


        "We passed many fishing boats along the waterway in South Carolina 
and a couple of oyster dredges. The oyster boats scoured the bottom with a 
conveyer belt system that scooped up everything on the river bed and brought 
it to the surface on its moving belt. Crewmen picked out the desirable 
oysters and clams from amidst the old tires and shoes before the belt 
rotated downward toward the bottom again. The residue was dumped back in the 
water. These boats appeared to pay not the slightest attention to the 
signs?posted every few hundred yards?prohibiting oyster dredging in polluted 
areas. Raw oysters and clams suddenly dropped several places on my seafood 
appetizer list.?


        Several small boats were loaded so heavily with oysters that the 
gunwales were only an inch or two above the water. A slight wave would have 
swamped them and liberated the oysters. We stopped for the night at Cedar 
Creek, the last potential anchorage before crossing Pamlico Sound."


Larry Z