Sunday, November 22, 2009

Recreational prawn fishing in California

Is legal
You may take any type of ocean shrimp in California waters, but spot prawns are the most desirable and sought-after for eating purposes; others are often used for bait. According to senior invertebrate specialist Kristine Barsky, because California’s spot prawns are found so deep – usually 100 fathoms (600 feet) or more – and the bag limit is only 35, most people are not interested in trapping these shrimp recreationally.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Coconut crabs of Nikumaroro

Eek
According to him, there is no evidence that the plane crashed in the ocean. It is more likely that Amelia and her navigator made a landing on the island to become castaways and eventually die there. “If Amelia died on Nikumaroro, her body was eaten by crabs. That’s pretty much a given.” The crabs were not ordinary crabs but known as coconut crabs.
Is this in the new movie?

Prawns threaten Gulf fisheries

Escapees could become an invasive species and disease vector:
Giant tiger prawns first appeared in Louisiana waterways two years ago, and mature adults have been spotted near Lafitte, Grand Isle, Venice and in Vermilion Bay, according to Wildlife and Fisheries.

Tiger prawns are used in aquaculture and first escaped from a facility in Bluffton, S.C., in 1988. But officials believe an additional release may have taken place from a facility in Alabama during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Bacon

According to the NYT:
Bacon has become the sun-dried tomato of our time.

Lifesaving prawns

The Independent reports on British Army medics using prawn shells to treat life-threatening wounds:
Amina was in a particularly serious condition; her leg was almost hanging off. Both of Guldasta's legs, meanwhile, were embedded with razor sharp metal shards. "We did the best we could," said Major Colin Wall, the Army doctor in charge of the medical unit at the base.

"They had a hell of an experience, but they were pretty brave. We have to deal with a lot of casualties from IEDs (improvised explosive devices) – British and Afghan soldiers, but also a lot of civilians. We do what we can, but there are obviously limits at a place like this in the front line."

But they made the best of it – and it worked. The first stage of the treatment in Nad-e-Ali had involved special bandages made with crushed shellfish. On being placed on wounds, "chitosan", an ingredient derived from prawns, rapidly stops severe bleeding and accelerates clot forming.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

A game of chicken on trade

The NYT
China is threatening to cut off imports of American chicken, but poultry experts have at least one reason to suspect it may be an empty threat: Many Chinese consumers would miss the scrumptious chicken feet they get from this country.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Danger! Biscuits!

The Telegraph
An estimated 25 million adults have been injured while eating during a tea or coffee break - with at least 500 landing themselves in hospital, the survey revealed.

The custard cream biscuit was found to be the worse offender to innocent drinkers.

Via Tyler Cowen

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Oily prawns?

Chinese scientists claim prawn shell chitin can be used in biofuel production.

Alien prawns!

The aliens in the new movie "District 9" are apparently nicknamed Prawns. I wonder if they get made into risotto.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

back of the house

I added the Atlantic Food Channel to the blogroll when I learned that Alinea's Grant Achatz was blogging, but I added the overall feed for food sites at the Atlantic, not just the one to his specific blog... which meant that his posts would get pushed off the list of recent updates by other stuff. I've now added a new link just for Achatz and for a couple more food blogs to encourage myself to check them more often.

Among the Achatz posts I missed, was an interesting one about how to deal with treating customers differently.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Farmers and prawn ranchers should be friends

But there are problems
“The local authorities (Village level Peace and Development Council – VPDC) sold the fishing rights at Kyat 3 million. The shrimp farm owners, who acquired the fishing rights of sea water shrimp farming continuously open and close the dyke which protected our paddy fields from saline water. They do this to catch shrimps and prawns. As a result the paddy fields were inundated with sea water damaging all the fields,” a farmer from Pyinsalu told Mizzima.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Remote cheese?

BBC Headline:

Remote cheese factory to reopen

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Prawns threaten biosecurity

News from Down Under:

Senator Heffernan said the marinade was being used as a "cover" for the importation of otherwise raw prawns, and argued the biosecurity protocols in place to protect the local industry were inadequate to stop such practices.

Unfit prawns

In Vadodara they use urea
The farmers are facing stiff competition from their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh. They said fish and prawns from the state are unfit for consumption.

“In Andhra, they nurse the fish and prawn seeds with pig stock and beef, which we cannot use as it is against our belief.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Risotto round the campfire

In the Telegraph
"Who would have thought when the Scouting Association formed in 1907 that good old traditional camping grub would be side-lined for gourmet dishes that get served in top class restaurants?

"With cookery programmes dominating our TV channels, Scouts are determined to give celebrity chefs a run for their money.

"We want to do our best to re-create their challenging recipes in the great outdoors."

Risotto was the top campsite meal with and incredible 32 per cent of votes, paella second with 28 per cent, followed by veggie and meat skewers with 15 per cent.


Burgers came in fifth. Not clear what fraction of the risotto is prawn risotto.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Better than a dead prawn

The Cairns Post:

VIDEO released by Cairns Regional Council shows a live prawn, rust and rubbish in Port Douglas' water supply.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Natalia Cecire: Citations: Useless and Boring

Natalia Cecire: Citations: Useless and Boring takes down Mark Taylor's idiotic Op-Ed in the NYT. I add a few thoughts at my other place.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009