Max Thaysen and Erik Lyon led a shellfish harvesting workshop in Mansons Lagoon on Thursday January 9, 2024. This was a free event sponsored by the Cortes Island Community Foundation, Decoda Literacy, and the Cortes Island Food Bank. Cortes Currents interviewed Max a few days prior to the workshop.
“ I would love to support people to get more of their food from our local environment in a way that is ecologically sustainable and invited my friend Eric Lyon to join me in presenting the glory of shellfish to anybody who hasn’t yet heard, or felt comfortable accessing this food,”he said.
“I think eating wild local food makes life more meaningful. I am hoping to encourage people to develop this relationship that I find so meaningful. It defines part of who I am , and makes my life beautifully intertwined with the ecosystem. Eating the place that we live is a way to love and need the place that we live, in addition to making life more affordable and healthier.”
“I also plan on talking a little bit about the impacts of climate change, which are strongly felt in the shellfish community.”
Littleneck clams by Adam Baylor via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
“Clams exist all around our coast. Manila and Littleneck are the easiest to find and the ones that I’m most familiar with. Then of course, there are oysters. Both of them are super easy to harvest even in not a very low tide, more like a medium low tide.”
“They are pretty accessible, delicious, abundant and super nutritious in ways that lots of other foods that we eat are not. Like healthy sea fats, which are rich in brain food and also important for heart health and immune function. So shellfish are pretty amazing, if we can figure out how to work it into our lifestyles.”
Cortes Currents: How do you know where to find the clams?
Max Thaysen: “They’re pretty common. If you’re not sure, you can go to the beach and just start poking around. Certainly finding shells on the surface of the beach is a good indicator that there’s clams around. Manson’s Landing, also known as Clytosin, is the place that I’m most familiar with. There’s shells everywhere littering the surface, indicating that there’s clams everywhere under the surface. They’re about an inch down.”
“Oysters live on the surface, so they’re visible. You can find them almost everywhere.”
Cortes Currents: Do you need to look for bubbles in the sand or anything like that?
Max Thaysen: “Some clam species can be found by little bubbles at the surface. That sand is often quite sinky when you’re walking on it, but I’ve never dug for whatever clam makes those distinctive holes at the surface.
Plate of Manilla Clams – Photo by Judgefloro (Own Work) via Wikimedia (Public Domain)
“Mansons Landing is where I do most of my digging for littlenecks and manilas. I’m sure that they have a breathing hole, but it’s not as prominent.”
Cortes Currents: Is there any specific time of the year you should go?
Max Thaysen: “You can collect shellfish almost year round. You do have to be careful because there is a chance of paralytic shellfish poisoning, which comes from red tide (an algal bloom). In the past people have used the rule of staying out of the summer months, also known as only harvesting shellfish in a month with the letter ‘R’ in its name. I don’t think that that is a reliable tool, especially these days with the changing climate.”
“I just use the DFO, Department of Fisheries and Oceans. They do testing for dangerous pathogens, and they update their list of when it’s safe to harvest and when it’s not. I check every time I go.”
“The list that I refer to only lists the open species, the ones that are currently safe and legal to harvest. You do need to know what you’re harvesting so that you know that you’re getting those species and not one that is prohibited. Species of shellfish can hold the red tide ,or the paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin, for different amounts of time.Some can hold it for as long as a couple of years. That’s why we see some shellfish species being closed most of the time. If there’s been a red tide any time in the last couple of years, they could be unhealthy for humans.”
Cortes Currents: Are there any tricks to preparing shellfish before you eat them?
Max Thaysen: “Clams live down in the sand, and they have a bunch of sand inside their body. So give them a soak in sand free salt water for at least a few hours, maybe four hours, but ideally 12 hours. That allows them a chance to purge the sand out of their bodies.Then you’ll have a much less crunchy experience. Do it in a bucket. You either want to make your own salt water at home, which is fine, but I usually try to bring some salt water home.”
“Oysters don’t need that. They’re living on the surface as long as you’re not getting one that’s been really half submerged in the sand or something.”
Vancouver Island Mussels by Roy Luck via Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Cortes Currents: You didn’t mention mussels.
Max Thaysen: “There are some wild mussels around, but they don’t get as big as the commercial variety in most of the places that I’ve been. They tend to be quite small. While I have eaten them, I haven’t usually bothered to harvest them.”
“If you find yourself somewhere where there’s big mussels and they’re safe to eat, then that’s pretty premium stuff. On the west coast of Vancouver Island there’s some really big mussels that are quite delicious.”
Cortes Currents: You also mentioned climate change impacts among shellfish.
Max Thaysen: “The changes that we’re causing with carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere is also getting into the water, actually quite a lot getting into the water. It’s changing the acidity levels, making the ocean more acidic, which is gradually making it harder and harder for anything that makes a shell to close up.”
“There’s a risk that if we don’t stop polluting the atmosphere, mostly by burning fossil fuels, then we’re gonna undermine this really important and beautiful food source for ourselves.”
“The same ocean acidification issue that affects shellfish, affects almost everything with a shell in the ocean. Many of those are the smaller microscopic or almost microscopic creatures that the whole food web of the ocean depends on.”
“I’m sure there’s exceptions that have their own solid foundation, but almost everything starts with the planktons, the zooplankton. Many of those things have hard shells and require sufficient alkalinity in the ocean.”
Cortes Currents: Have you noticed any negative effects in the shellfish that you’ve been dealing with?
Max Thaysen: “There was the heat dome in 2021 where we saw massive impacts on various shellfish, especially oysters who live at the surface and were getting cooked.”
“I have not personally noticed any effects yet of the changes in alkalinity.
“We have seen changes from climate change more broadly. The heat in the ocean has increased the severity and frequency of many diseases that affect shellfish.”
Pacific Oysters prepared on rock salt, with lime – Photo by gautsch via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
“I know that shellfish growers notice this quite strongly. I understand that the viability of wild spawning oysters has been declining due to ocean acidification, and that the oysters that are grown need to be started off as babies that spawn in controlled tanks where they buffer , is the scientific term for adjusting the alkalinity and aciditic levels.”
“So the impacts are starting, but they’re sometimes not noticeable, sometimes noticeable and so far tolerable, but we need to move fast in order to prevent them from becoming intolerable.”
Cortes Currents: Are there any final comments you would like to make?
Max Thaysen: “I’d like to thank the Cortes Island Community Foundation for supporting this event and helping get the word out and helping us organize. It should be a lot of fun. If you can, bring a bucket. This time of year the tides are low at night time and it’s getting dark at five o’clock. Sometimes you can find a tide that’s low enough before my bedtime.”
“That’s why we’re choosing this particular day. Bring a headlamp if you have one. Rubber boots are nice. Gloves are nice, but none of that are totally necessary and will make do with whatever level of equipment you bring.”
“Also, a fishing license is required to harvest shellfish legally in BC. So if you want to take some home and you want to do that legally, then you better get a fishing license.”
Cortes Currents: Where would you get that?
Max Thaysen: “Fishing licenses are available online. If you get into your internet web browser and just do a search for DFO Pacific Fishing License, you’re looking for the tidal waters version as opposed to the freshwater version.”
Links of Interest
Where to check Shellfish conditions in your area
- Master Index for all Bivalve shellfish areas in BC
- From Whaletown to Mansons Landing and the southwest tip of Cortes Island – Check Subarea 13-15
- From Carrington Bay north to Von Donop Inlet on Cortes Island – Check Subarea 13-16
- For Northwest Cortes Island – Check Subarea 13-17
- Lewis Channel, Seaford, Tiber Bay, west coast of West Redonda Island – Check Subarea 15-5B
- Squirrel Cove – Subarea 15-32 closed to shelfish harvesting
- Southeast Cortes Island – Check Subarea 15-3
Other DFO Links of interest
- Click here to obtain a fishing license
- Realtime bivalve shellfish safety harvesting map
- Information about recreational shellfish harvesting in BC
- Shellfish harvesting safety information
- Planned bivalve shellfish harvesting closures
Top image credit: Clam bake – Photo courtesy Uri Tours via Flickr (CC By SA 2.0)
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