Mussels???

[Hayduke]

We were clamming today and I noticed tons of mussels out of Clam Gulch. Can we harvest them? As in are they ok to eat? PSP? We wouldn't harvest them in OR but is it OK here?

[Bullelkklr]

I ate some last year - the ones that I got into were not very big...

[sayak]

We gather them from places such as China Poot where they grow fairly large. We love them sauteed in butter, garlic and white wine.
Be sure and remove all the little rocks and hairy stuff from them first. No need to clean anything inside or soak them, in fact; use them ASAP.

[fullkurl]

Yep, perfectly fine to indulge. The rocks on the beach near the mouth of Deep Creek are loaded with 'em.

We clam there at low tide and then mussel gather. Great fun and eating!

[AKBoater]

http://seagrant.uaf.edu/features/PSP/PSP.pdf

Mussels have the highest recorded concentration of PSP out of all bivalves in Alaska. Be careful what you eat.

[homerdave]

one tip is to gather them off the sides off rocks, and not off the beach.
they will be much cleaner and better tasting.

[ak_powder_monkey]

aside from shellfish being really gross PSP is not something I'd want to mess with

[Tealer]

When I was a kid we used to use them for bait. My job was to pick them off the rocks, open them and use a knife to remove everything. We'd put everything on a hook and fish off the rocks. I remember that catching more fish than anything else we used and it didn't cost anything. I always chuckle when someone talks about eating them. I remember them as bait not food. I had them in Italy and they are awefully good. If the fishins bad I gues I'll sautee the bait. Are they still legal as bait? I haven't checked in years.

[Hayduke]

aside from shellfish being really gross PSP is not something I'd want to mess with

Me thinks the PSP is only a real concern during warm months up here maybe only really warm summers. The idea of filter feeders is gross but **** are they tasty. Next time I might pick off a few of those snails too!

[JR2]

I have eaten them off the beach in Homer, Deep Creek, Ninilchik and Clam Gulch as well as some other places. Never had any problems and they are very tasty.

I always let someone else eat them first..... Dinners ready.. okay I will be back in a few minutes... hey everyone how is dinner, any one have numb lips? Cool, pass the mussels.

[G_Smolt]

Mussels are immune to the saxitoxins that cause psp - as a result, they continue feeding and build up massive loads that are quite lethal to mammals. I would use caution when "testing" from a new area, as the lethality might be incredibly high, on the rate of 20x lethal dose.

If you know for a fact that Gonyalux and Alexandria spp are not present and haven't been found in megabloom densities, I would enjoy the mussels with a light wine sauce.

[kasilofchrisn]

We have picked mussels off the rocks in the areas across from homer and they were good. We just threw them on the campfire grate for a minute or so.

Me thinks the PSP is only a real concern during warm months up here maybe only really warm summers. The idea of filter feeders is gross but **** are they tasty. Next time I might pick off a few of those snails too!

Just be sure you are harvesting the snails that are safe to eat. You want the ones with smooth shells( not including the barnacles) I was told the ones with the rough and hairy shells were not edible. These are easy to spot and tell apart. We used to get them when I worked at the crab cannery out of the holds of some of the boats that didn't sort real well. The Phillipino ladies in the laundry dept. loved them and would eat 5 gallons in a day if we had them.
our night shift foreman told us how to tell what was good to eat and what wasn't. Nobody got sick from the smooth shelled ones so I assume he knew what he was talking about.

[AKBoater]

You guys want a real treat, pry a bucket bunch of limpets off the rocks and steam those suckers in beer and a little saltwater. Tasty doesn't begin to describe it.

[mallardman]

limpets are good on pizza to

[whalebreath]

So the gubmint doesn't test for PSP at all?

Here in BC they check all the time-maybe because of all the Oyster farms-I guess it's too cold in Alaska for Oysters.