February 20, 2007

Scallops are harvested by ‘dredging’ - dragging a set of steel spikes over the sea-bed. This dislodges the shellfish, produces $5 million per annum for the fishing-boats and reduces the sea-bed – sponges, corals, sea-fans and all – to barren rubble.

Not all scallops are harvested by dredging.

  • AKA trawling, the word-origin of many internetters' favorite pastime.
  • This needs to be made illegal immediately.
  • Scallop farming is fast becoming a big business. Although sometimes the process includes depositing of young scallops on the sea floor for later dragging, often the mature scallops are picked, and also, many farms bring the scallops to maturity suspended by ropes from floats on the sea surface - no trawling needed.
  • Damn, so now I'll have to ask the waiter if the scallops are trawl-free...? Feel bad enough about the blood-soaked, slave-harvested chocolate from Africa.
  • I think you'll find the tofu hasn't been trawled, sir.
  • I am too depressed to find a link FOR you, but I am sure a Google of Chesapeake Bay and Oysters will yield similar, sad results.
  • I think you'll find the tofu hasn't been trawled, sir. It may not have been trawled, but it may have "aided and abetted" deforestation of the Amazon. My apologies, Flagpole. You will now have to ask the waiter if the tofu is Cargill-free.
  • Now, now, smt - 80% of that soy is turned into livestock feed. Look! Pretty blue scallop eyes!
  • I know, fish tick, I was just sayin'... And I must admit, I have fallen for blue scallop eyes on many occasions... alluring, no?
  • Also, many people are unaware that the huge hinge muscle is related to their swimming abilities. Other shellfish have 'scallops', but with the scallop the hinge muscle is generally all that we eat.
  • My father, who loves food, particularly seafood, swears that all scallops are blasted with chemicals the minute they're caught, to preserve them for market. I never buy them.
  • I want to turn fish tick's sentence into a Mad Lib: Also, many people are unaware that the huge ______(adjective) muscle is related to their _______(gerund) abilities. Other ________(plural noun) have '_______'(plural noun), but with the _______(noun) the _______(adjective) muscle is generally all that we eat.
  • I'm having trouble finding a fair trade cocaine dealer
  • "the hinge muscle is generally all that we eat" Only you crazy Americans. Saner folk know that the orange organ surrounding it is the best bit.
  • ew...organs - or orgnz? ;)
  • On a related note, I just heard an interview with the lead researcher on an international project examining deep sea trawling. Already known was the fact that deep sea life grows at very slow rates, due to scarce food resources, so that deep sea trawling was completely unsustainable environmentally. The deep sea life cannot reproduce quickly enough to replace even a fraction of what is caught or killed through trawling. What the report revealed was that deep sea trawling was also unsustainable economically, and is in fact a money losing activity only sustained by government fuel subsidies. The deep sea trawling fleets are currently not that much different from pirates, destroying their surroundings while bleeding money from global society. See here.