I don't know if this picture taken at Calamajue conveys what I saw:
This pile of shells was about 6 feet deep and at least a city block in surface area. Each is about the size of your palm.
There must of been several million shells in this pile.
How many man hours did it take to collect all these critters? They must have been picked manually from the sea bottom by divers - one by one.
What does the sea floor look like where they once existed? Are they fast growing?
Where has all of the meat been shipped? Is this the fishery they fell back on when the shark fishing stopped? Was the road to Calamajue graded in
order to get this to market before the heat destroyed the catch?
Gringorio, you must have seen this. Were you impressed by this sight? What conclusions did you come to?
Limitless resourse
Sharksbaja - 7-27-2005 at 12:35 AM
The picture alone seaks volumes. What a sad sight. What it means is more than the destruction of colonies of bi-valves.
When the seafloor gives up it's inhabitants, so goes the the biosphere.
You see, over thousands of years a balance of life and death exists between all the sealife in the area. From the clams come the fish. Hundred of
species and their subsistence depends on the fauna available. Take away the food, say goodbye to lots of things.
Kinda like the Bay of Concepcion. Raping or otherwise clearing out native clam and other species does irreversable harm.
Remember the piles of abalone shells from Santa Barbara to Morrow Bay.
Americans know the consequences. Too bad the Mexicans don't.
shells
gringorio - 7-27-2005 at 08:43 AM
hey Skipjack,
Thanks for the post. When I was there I wandered around that great pile of shells and wondered the same thing: Where did they come from? How were
they harvested? What were/are they used for?
The family that lives closest to the southern side of the piles of shells came out to greet me as I wandered around and so I asked them about the
shells. The man said that they harvested them by diving for them (hooka-style?), but judging by the extensive size of the piles can you imagine how
many dives that would be?! He also said that they were shipped to the mainland to be used in the curio trade to make the kind of touristy things you
see in shops in San Felipe and Puerto Penasco. I didn't ask nor did he indicate that the meat was eaten or shipped off to markets elsewhere.
Does anyone else know the mystery behind these shell piles?
shell pile
gringorio - 7-27-2005 at 08:49 AM
another view of the shells
Ab fishery
Skipjack Joe - 7-27-2005 at 12:14 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Sharksbaja
The picture alone seaks volumes. What a sad sight.
The ab fishery on the central baja coast, on the other hand, seems to be run about as well as anything I've seen ... better than in the US. They guard
their abs ferociously. They have a short season and a quota which they stick to.
I met Fernando at San Roques. He called himself a 'vigilante' (vee-hee-lan-te). He's job was to watch out for abalone poachers. Every
evening he would row out his dinghy out to the boat in the harbor where he remained on guard all night for abalone smugglers. His boat had a spotlight
that was so powerful I think you could have spotted an aircraft with it (I'm kidding, of course). I asked him why the fuss about abalones.
Porque son caros, amigo!
When fishing from shore for calicos I often saw abalone in the tidepools. So I guess it worked.
P.S.
(1) Remember the pink and black murex shells we used to find in the 70's? I haven't seen one in a long time.
(2) Fernando had an interesting family. His son was named Fernando. His daughter was named Fernanda. His wife was the only member who was not called
Fernando/a.
[Edited on 7-27-2005 by Skipjack Joe]
Those mounds of shells
jrbaja - 7-27-2005 at 12:34 PM
are located in many places in Baja. Many places around Bahia Concepcion had the piles and you were driving on a 1' depth of them.
Laguna San Ignacio had many mounds and many other uninhabited areas as well. I suppose from previous fish camps.
After the chubascos, the beaches are covered and many remote areas still have fairly large populations of shellfish.
When those mounds were started, I can just imagine the abundance there must have been. 20 years ago you could stand in one spot and fill a bucket
with chocolates. And those mounds go back 100's of years!Tomas Tierra - 7-28-2005 at 04:41 PM
Callo Catarina
Very tasty little creatures. Sweet as candy. Only eaten them raw with lemon..Never found enough to cook!
I saw them around Laguna San Ignacio and surrounding Lagunas. And, yes there were mounds of shells everywhere..
