Salty sea air, the wind blowing on your face, the sun shining brightly, the naked seabed, the light sound of the bubbles popping everywhere, and a huge delicious and fresh-caught seafood on your hand. Aaaahhhh!😍 What a great day isn't it?
Yes, I'm a seafood lover, but it's not the delicious seafood that keeps me coming back to the ocean on low tides. It's not the food, it's the thrill and the adventure of seafood hunting. I am deeply immersed in it.🥰
After our wonderful escapades to the mountains and lakes (my previous blogs), it's time we hit the beach! But Oops! We went to the ocean not to swim and enjoy the waves rather we went to the ocean to hunt some sea urchins and eat them at the sea! Ssshhrrrll.🤤
Seafood hunting never fails to exhilarate and excite my veins. There was not a time that I felt tired on one of my seafood hunting regardless of the scorching heat of the sun or how muddy the sand that makes it hard to move and step forward. I so love this fun and outdoor activity to the point that I always find time to visit the beach and hunt for seafood at least every two-three months. And now, I'm just happy that I was able to grab the chance to go seafood hunting again! Yeaaayyy!!!
The Hunt.🐚
My husband and I already planned this hunting adventure a week earlier. In hunting seashells, one must consider the time and the weather. The best time to hunt fresh shells and other seafood is an hour before low tide. Track the time of tide in the calendar. And that's what we did! We always did! You can hunt seashells at night too but you need to have a super bright light.
For our hunt this time we headed to Tigbawan, Tabuelan Beach. We had once our hunt on the East side of this beach which I also published a blog here, but this time we tried the west side of the beach to check its bounty. We love this beach for its accessibility, and the fine white sand, and how it gets shallow during low tides.
The calendar says the low tide is at 9:27 PM -0.0m. This indicates the best time to hunt and how shallow the sea could get. We hurriedly prepared our things knives, gloves, plastic containers, small bottles of vinegar, rice, and other things we needed. Unfortunately, we arrived 30 minutes late because of a traffic jam due to a local market activity that we passed by. The 30 mins late means that the water will soon rise again so when we arrived, we didn't waste any time and hurriedly went hunting.
We secured our things in one of the rocks on the beach. I and my husband had separate directions on where to hunt and pick some shells. I excitedly walked on the clear and calm shallow water, some parts of the seawater is already knee-deep. I passed by the lush seaweeds. Just a few steps away, I was greeted by the thorny black sea urchins hiding on the rocks (that's where you can usually find sea urchins!). Not too far away, I saw some seashells sticking on a small rock. I checked their size and discovered they were still small, I didn't bother picking them up, I'll let them grow first and maybe pick them up next time.
I keep on walking trying to find seashells, but I couldn't spot even a single of them. I've walked here and there, around and vice versa but I found nothing, it's because the water is now slowly rising. Still, I continued hunting for seafood. The persistent me would not surrender easily until I found a giant clam shell! Oh my! I hurriedly picked it up and only to get disappointed that it was an empty shell. Haayysst.😔 But instead of throwing it away then, I took a picture of it first, it's a shame not to have some photos of how beautiful the shell is.
The sun gets hotter but I don't wanna give up just like that, I tried one more time searching and hunting. I moved to this big rock that looks like a little islet to try my luck there! Maybe I could pick some shells there. I checked the rock carefully and found two sea urchins hiding in a hole. Looking at their size, I didn't pick them because they can still grow and provide more delicious meat by the time they reached their right size.
I checked the place one more time hoping to spot big shells. This time, I admit defeat, maybe today is not my day to hunt plenty of seashells same last time I came to this beach. I went back to the shore, sat down, and waited for my husband to come back.
The delicious fresh catch!
Though the seashore is keeping its seashells away from us today, my husband was able to bring back a few catches of him. He found a giant sea urchin, the orange one, and some big seashells too!
He opened the sea urchin, cleaned it, put some vinegar into it, and then we shared it! We were happily eating and sharing what we had encountered on our hunt that day.
We enjoyed the fresh and delicious sea urchin so much! Umami! They say that sea urchins taste like the ocean, well for me, its taste is incomparable, it is naturally delicious without any condiments added to it. And guess what, eating sea urchins at the sea makes you crave more rice especially if paired with vinegar. !Haha.
After eating, we tried walking one more time at the back part of the islet to check it. Who knows it's the hideout of the shells this time! Hehe. We are that persistent! Indeed we discovered something! A family who also came to hunt some sea urchins! Good thing they have a small boat to go far away and hunt more shells.
We watched how they removed the spiky thorns of the sea urchins and we were amazed that it was so simple! I might blog on the process in my upcoming blogs!
It was a great hunt!
A reminder:
Careful when you hunt sea urchins, especially with the black ones, its thorny spikes can inflict severe pain.
Don't pick the baby shells, let them grow and (maybe) multiply first. 😉
-Do not forget your hunting gear: Knives, gloves, container, shoes, and hats .
-You may have a bad catch but there will never be a bad hunt.😉
-Enjoy hunting.
We almost caught nothing for our seafood hunting that day, but we were happy and fulfilled by our experience. As for me, I was able to relax and forget the busy work. It was a great time having fun, a low-cost, and healthy outdoor activity.
Have a blast Hive! Thank you for reading this far.🤗