Can you Live off the Bounty of the Sea?

[sushirama]

Also you may want to look at an algae bioreactor. Cheap source of sustainable food and it can be processed for fuel as well. On the list to build at some point as well.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by PlumBob

Has anyone / does anyone eat Gull, or other sea birds? If so, how do you catch them?

Gulls are not pelagic, thank goodness!

I once caught an albatross on a cedar plug which was being trolled at the surface. It put up quite a fight. Fortunately for my sailing karma, I released the poor thing uneaten.

(The trick to getting the hook out of the beak was to wrap the bird in a towel. It stopped struggling right away.)

[SSBN734ET3SS]

A good how to is the movie "Waterworld". Lol. Remember, sailors belong on ships and ships belong at sea. Land is just a nav hazard.

[s/v Beth]

Anyone make sushi out there? If you could get the fish and seaweed all you would need is rice, veges and seasoning.

[cheoah]

We eat sushi out there for sure. Mahi belly meat makes great sashimi, and without all the trimmings, keeps the GI settled in the Gulf Stream. Hard to turn it down, fresh out of the water.

[Ofer]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Anyone make sushi out there? If you could get the fish and seaweed all you would need is rice, veges and seasoning.

how would we process the raw seaweed for sushi consumption?

[BlackOak]

i watched that movie "Kon Tiki", and them Norwegian boys drug a small basket net behind their boat and gathered up all kinds of goodies to eat. Come to think of it, them Norwegian boys ate ALL kinds of goodies that came up behind their raft....if ya ask me I think they even ate that pet parrot, that allegedly was blown off the boat by a storm.

[Weyalan]

For what it is worth, cruising around our local waters, we have never failed to be able to provide for ourselves in the way of fresh seafood:
Flathead, Australian Salmon, Whiting, Bastard Trumpeter, Trevally (various types), atlantic salmon (fish farm escapees) are all relatively common, not to mention calamari squid and arrowhead squid.
Shellfish are also plentiful - mussels, oysters, scallops, pipis, abalone etc.
We even, very occasionally, manage to get a crayfish (lobster).

Having said that, I wouldn't even want to live exclusively on the bounty of the sea. 10kg of potatoes costs $4 and 10kg of onions costs $3...

[ArtM]

Originally Posted by Jassen

Assuming you have a desalination unit of some sort, it just seems logical for me that, theoretically, you could stay at sea indefinitely. Am I wrong?

Look up how the sailors of the old "tall ships" survived crossing the Atlantic ocean. If anyone EVER had motivation to find a way to survive from the sea bounty, those guys did! Yet, they carried supplies, and they ate those supplies even when they were rotted and rancid.

Fish are not universally available everywhere. In some places, they will be too deep to get. In other places, they will be too scarce. They will be rare in crowded anchorages. If you are in remote islands, you might run into resistance from the local fisherman if your methods are too "commercial", and I think they would probably have to be. For example, you probably could never survive by bait fishing, but you might do OK dragging a net - there are likely to be local ordinances against such collection without a license.

You'll need to gather fruits from the islands, as previously mentioned.

You will need a device to collect rain water.

If you have more than $30k to invest in a boat, you can build a pretty nice self-sufficient ocean cruiser with an inbuilt solar powered desalination plant, but all those parts will need maintenance, repairs, and purchasing.

Hunter/Gatherer societies are generally seen (in my experience) as communities. I have never heard of (though some may exist) of individual hunter/gatherers subsisting as a result of their own efforts.

The ocean is a foreign environment for humans, and it is naturally posionous to our existence. The "life at sea" dream exists because autonomous living on land has become nearly impossible in the modern world, and because nobody wants to live on the water, and because there is modern (expensive) technology that makes it possible to do.

It might influence to understand that this is not really "back to nature", but really just one more technology-enhanced way of living in modern society. Granted it beats cubicle slavery, but it is not completely free living either.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

Regarding eating seagulls, I note several mentions of chicken... we always called gulls flying rats ... to offer a slightly different angle to "bounty of the sea." Maybe you could but would you incorporate a gull into your normal diet? To those of you nodding "yes", and you know who you are, here's a tip or two from Crisis Times:

Bon Jovi oops ... Appetit

Inland, We call them "Dump Chickens"

[ArtM]

Originally Posted by SSBN734ET3SS

A good how to is the movie "Waterworld". Lol. Remember, sailors belong on ships and ships belong at sea. Land is just a nav hazard.

The hero of Waterworld had the ability to breath underwater, dive to any depth, yet was still dependent on trading with the local community-based groups for supplies. Even with all his natural advantages, he wasn't making it entirely on his own.

[Pblais]

It's the movies! If he could have survived there wouldn't have been a movie. Movies require conflict! Not a bad movie either. The boat actually was real. Lots of the shots were not.

For the most part real living totally on the water has never been possible without a big ship full of goodies. Certain nutrients you can't reel in. On land you have a better chance of being totally non social and of course not in the movies!. That should be avoided as it tends to attract tourists. No telling what they will bring.

[sailorboy1]

When sailing I see guys in boats fishing all over the place and normally I see them a long time as I slowly sail by.

I notice that I rarely ever see one reeling in a fish!

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

When sailing I see guys in boats fishing all over the place and normally I see them a long time as I slowly sail by.

I notice that I rarely ever see one reeling in a fish!

You're right. Fish stocks almost everywhere are down. Possibly due to landlubbers and others' insatiable desire to eat fish, and fishermen wanting to earn a living.

Ann

[s/v Beth]

I've followed this thread for more than two years now, and I still don't think we have any diffentive answers. If we were in a post apocalyptic world tomorrow and had to survive on our boat, I think most of us would use it to sail to a hidey hole and survive on the land water interface. Much easier to do. The sea really is just too hard of an environment.
Now don't bother me while I take a nap while anchored in this little cove. I'll go hunting for oysters later.