bajalera - 11-19-2007 at 04:56 PM
Can anyone tell me what kinds of fish and shellfish are likely to be available with some consistency [or would have been, in those good old days] in
the area around Loreto?
Sallysouth - 11-19-2007 at 07:47 PM
Are you talking about buying, fishing or dining?If you want to snorkle/dive in a beautiful place, Juncalito has a bay full of Chocolate clams.It is
sand bottom. I am sure there will be more responces for you but maybe be more specific.
Don Alley - 11-19-2007 at 09:52 PM
Yes, chocolate clams are still gathered by divers.
Numerous species of inshore fish were available, and still are though in lesser numbers. Several species of cabrilla, grouper, triggerfish, snappers
may be among the more common. Also mantas, sharks and rays. And catfish. There is a saltwater catfish in Bahia Chuenque.
I would guess that in the more distant past, offshore and deeper water species were uncommon in native diets. Today I am slightly surprised to see so
much bottom and structure fishing in water 200 feet deep; I would guess fish at those depths were once safe from human predation.
Gatherers could also find octopi, sea urchins and a variety of small molluscs besides the chocolate clams. And live squid often wash up onshore.
Most of the turtles are gone but they may have been more plentiful here once; I saw hundreds farther south in the early 60s.
There have been archeological studies of native settlements in California cataloging bones from fish, that say as much about fish populations as they
say about the lifestyle of the Indians. These archeological records show natural fluctuations in fish populations.
bajalera - 11-20-2007 at 01:30 PM
I'm looking for info on what seafood is available because I'm writing about what the Indians may have foraged for.
Should have explained that!
And should also have thanked you for all that good stuff, Don, before posting the above.
[Edited on 11-20-2007 by bajalera]
Sallysouth - 11-21-2007 at 08:00 PM
Wow! Don Alley is a wealth of information! Now I know who to ask when a question comes up about about the history of that area. I have seen live
(large) squid washed ashore , especially in what the locals call Honeymoon Cove on Danzante. We just thought they were sick or poisoned.Guess we could
have taken them back to camp and eaten them!?
So Bajalera, is this a book or a
school project or??Inquiring mind wants to know
[Edited on 11-22-2007 by Sallysouth]
[Edited on 11-22-2007 by Sallysouth]
Paula - 11-22-2007 at 08:17 AM
I suspected that this question was for research for your book, Lee. All of the species that Don mentions above, and maybe others, were much more
abundant back in the day than they are now.
From Ann and Don O'Neil's book Loreto, Baja California First Mission and Capital of Spanish California:
"The men of the Monquí group of Loreto fished... Early explorers saw men from Loreto on sturdy rafts, very well made from cane... The whole family
could gather fish from shore when the yellowtail boiled in feeding frenzies and sometimes leapt out of the water onto the beach, as they did until not
many years ago when commercial fishing depleted the sea."
Also significant are the fish and turtle images in cave paintings in Baja Sur that seem to indicate that seafood was eaten by the mountain people
too.
I hope your work is going nicely, and that we'll see we'll see more previews of you book here soon!
[Edited on 11-22-2007 by Paula]
bajalera - 11-22-2007 at 02:15 PM
Thanks, Paula. I really like that book by the O'Neils, which provides so much more than the title looks like it offers. Good history, and other
pleasant surprises.
Last week a Dell computer geek, young and sort of gawky and sweet and innocent looking, stopped by to install a new motherboard. As I clicked on Open
to show him one of the problems I'd been having, I realized--too late!-- that the file name "f*ckin' book," renamed in a moment of pique, was going
to destroy his faith in the decency of little old ladies.
That's how the book has been going.
Osprey - 11-22-2007 at 02:31 PM
There's a big early man tool site nearby in East Cape. The 1000s of handtools are so large I think the Indians (Palmas Group - 4,000 YBP) had been
using them to make rafts and to kill/prepare large creatures such as turtles, porpoise, small whales and rays of every kind. My guess is that they
rowed the rafts out from shore to deploy fiber nets. All the kitchen middens are shellfish (lots of conch). There were either lots of folks here or
a few folks for a long time because the site is extensive. Loreto natives 3500 years more modern would have much better tools and techniques I would
guess.
bajalera - 11-24-2007 at 01:38 PM
Sally, I'm working on a manuscript--which hopefully will eventually be a book--about the Baja Indians and Jesuits, but from the Indian point of view.
Or to be more exact, my view of the Indian view.
Sounds like an interesting site, Jorge. I've got the Velasquez/Reygadas book on the Pericu, but don't recall that place being mentioned [the book is
in La Paz and i won't be back till January, unfortunately].
Sallysouth - 11-24-2007 at 06:38 PM
Good on ya Lera.Quite an endeavor, if I may say.Hope you DO turn it into a book.You could become legendary like some other of our Nomad writers.Keep
us updated? Sally