Norcal harvesting...

    Quote from Dan

    Are they difficult to extract? The fish has two right?


    If that cup belongs to Don then he's taken a lot of WSB.


    Yup, each fish has two. They're not hard to extract if you know what you're doing. If you cleave the heads in half, you can stick your finger in & dig em out. Easiest way to explain is - they're located in that last roundish segment of vertebrate where it connects to the skull. We got some cool looking ones from ARS in the gulf, pargo in Baja, salmon fishing in Monterey, rockfish from Mendocino, of course WSB, etc... Kinda cool since each has it's own shape and size.


    Marine biologists use them to study age - they have growth rings like rings in a tree. Generally the older the fish, the bigger the otolith.

    Quote from Dan

    What's that Don?


    A coffee cup from Lockburne AFB ( where I was born in Ohio) full of White Sea Bass otoliths.
    I made a necklace and bracelet with larger ones I had. I only remove them from the fish over 50 lbs now.
    Cheers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

    Quote from fuzz

    Earbones from wsb. Otoliths. A lot of socal divers keep em as trophies. :)


    Thanks Buddy for giving Dan the scoop. I was trying to wash the green dye out of my hair and go-tee.:@
    Found out the hard way, food coloring is a bitch to get out. ;)


    Those are just the bones from the first ten years, cutting them out on a rocking boat offshore got old
    real fast. I think it's funny listening to all the WSB experts on other sites.... if they only knew.
    I never wasted any meat and I loved feeding 10 friends at my home sometimes, we had great Polynesian
    parties.
    Cheers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    Don, you are a treasure to this community. i admire your humble attitude in the face of, or because of, your immense wealth of knowledge and wisdom


    Thanks, but now that I look back on it, it had nothing to do with Fuzz's beautiful images and fine fish.
    It was more just meant to be a toast/joke between Fuzz and I. I should have know Dan's keen eye would
    lead him to ask what they are.
    Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

    Quote from Don Paul

    Thanks, but now that I look back on it, it had nothing to do with Fuzz's beautiful images and fine fish.
    It was more just meant to be a toast/joke between Fuzz and I. I should have know Dan's keen eye would
    lead him to ask what they are.
    Don


    It's all good... cali section needs some action anyways. :toast:



    Have any pics of that necklace/bracelet?


    One design someone mocked up (but never finished) that looked really nice was a small angel figure, with the 2 otoliths being the wings. I'm sure you can visualize that arrangement.



    I've saved a bunch over the years, but it's really a pain... & when friends began to ask to save the heads for soup, I stopped cleaving most of em. Though I did make soup a couple times with smaller ones & butterflying the heads, then grilling/broiling them first gave the broth significantly more depth. :thumbsup1:

    Have any pics of that necklace/bracelet? Quote: Fuzz.


    No.



    I've saved a bunch over the years, but it's really a pain... & when friends began to ask to save the heads for soup, I stopped cleaving most of em. Though I did make soup a couple times with smaller ones & butterflying the heads, then grilling/broiling them first gave the broth significantly more depth.
    Quote: Fuzz.


    I have a Filipino friends Mom I save the heads for after I wash and gill them.


    Cheers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    do other fish have ostoliths that are cool looking or worth collecting?


    Quote from fuzz

    Yup, each fish has two. They're not hard to extract if you know what you're doing. If you cleave the heads in half, you can stick your finger in & dig em out. Easiest way to explain is - they're located in that last roundish segment of vertebrate where it connects to the skull. We got some cool looking ones from ARS in the gulf, pargo in Baja, salmon fishing in Monterey, rockfish from Mendocino, of course WSB, etc... Kinda cool since each has it's own shape and size.


    Marine biologists use them to study age - they have growth rings like rings in a tree. Generally the older the fish, the bigger the otolith.



    Look for older fish in your area. A 40# salmon will have relatively small otoliths when compared to a 8# rockfish... the salmon may be 5x bigger, but the rockfish is probably 5x older. I'll be going out this weekend - I'll try to take a few pics of the procedure if it works out. :)



    Google otoliths & you'll come up with more info than you ever needed/wanted. :D
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otolith
    http://npafc.taglab.org/MarkFAQ.asp

    Quote from ladvr

    Managed to gather a few shrooms this week. Very low humidity has them drying up. I am guessing this was my season ender.


    Mike


    The end of a season is just the beginning of another. :)


    Clean looking shrooms! :thumbsup2:

    chanterelles? looking tasty...I know a trick from my youth to dry shroom really well for preserving or making Basht(polish peasant soup, if you like fungus, you need to look it up)


    this is not for drying in the traditional sense, this will make the shrooms dry to the point where they can be easily crushed to powder


    take a cookie sheet and similarly sized cooling rack. pour DampRid(tm) granules into the cookie sheet, not a lot, just enough to almost cover the sheet.... place the shrooms on the rack and then over the cookie sheet...cover with a paper towel or tin foil and leave in a place undisturbed for a day...the cookie sheet will be full of water when done so dont move the rig until you are done drying.


    a mortar and pestel will make the shrooms easy to use in ravioli, soups, as an additive to sauces...you'll find lots of use for dried mushroom powder actually :)

    i like to spear fish

    note, the above method was created for use with psychotropic mushrooms. However, it's cooking applications are far more applicable and useful, for me at least :)


    I have been told by my mother, who is a chef, that if you just leave them for a few hours the shrooms stay lot more rubbery rather than turning to dust

    i like to spear fish

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