On Mar 28, 3:34*pm, "tom" wrote:
Merlin, thanks for your kind words. *If you're interested, I have some more
photo-albums of similar trips. *If you liked the Balaklava Island trip, I
recommend the Queen Charlotte Straight trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tomfromv...Straights_July...

And, I have a bunch more albums of less adventurous, freshwater paddling on
Pitt Lake (world's largest tidal lake), Chilliwack Lake, etc. *All of the
albums are linked to from this page:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tomfromvan

Because my kayak is very small, too small actually, my trips have been cut
short due to running out of food, hence my interest in sushi and sashimi --- *
if I can supplement my provisions with seafood I should be able to go for
multi-week paddles instead of multi-day trips.

Health Canada has a blanket recommendation to freeze all sushi fish, but I
won't be able to do that --- I think I'll just stick to snapper, inspect the
meat closely, and cook the rest wrapped in kelp buried in sand under a
bonfire.

I love sea urchin roe too --- I'll probably bang some of them off, also.
Mussels are all over the rocks, clams at low tide. *You know the aboriginal
culture was highly advanced compared to many others because of the protein
rich environment --- it took maybe an hour to gather all the food you need
for the day and the rest of the time you could do whatever. *Unlike say, the
Sahara desert where they had to go from sun up to sun down and still might
not have enough food.

Thank you for the links to your photo journals. Some of your photos
may become framed for the walls of my house. The old expression: "A
picture is worth a thousand words" is most accurate to me. When I look
at photos such as yours, it gives me a wealth of feelings that are
almost overwhelming in their intensity. To see such places and events
in real time would be a fascinating thing indeed.

Thank you again for your generosity in sharing your experiences.

As for eating sushi in the wild, (so to speak), I do something that is
both very fulfilling as well as quite often humorous to me.

I live one mile from the ocean near Jacksonville Florida. I have what
I call my "Sushi Kit". It consists of:

1. One gallon of fresh water,
2. A "Table-Mate" TV tray and folding chair.
3. A cutting board
4. My 12" Sushi Knife
5. A Tupperware container for my rice and another for holding the
clean fillets while I clean up.

I go to the beach with my fishing pole and 6 live shrimp in a live
bait bucket.

I catch a Whiting, (Southern Kingfish, Menticirrhus americanus), put
it on my cutting board and quickly fillet it and remove the skin. I
then wash it with fresh water and put the fillets in my small
Tupperware container until I've cleaned my cutting board thoroughly.
Then I take enough rice from my container and form my rice balls for
nigiri, cut my fillets into appropriate size and have my Sushi
Breakfast on the beach while watching the ocean, (and sometimes look
at the bikinis...).

The humorous part is when non-sushi-eating people walk by and see what
I'm doing. They'll watch until I take a bite and you should see their
faces! It's worth a million!

Of course, I'm met many people who love sushi and some even ask if
they could have a bite. I always share.

There is no sushi fresher than this unless you dive in the ocean and
eat them in the water, haha.

Good luck to you on your quest for Kayak Sushi.

Note: For catching Whiting easily, I use a number six, long shank,
chrome hook with a 1/2" piece of fresh dead shrimp on the "bow" of the
hook. By "fresh dead" I mean I cut it from a living shrimp, (it truly
makes a big difference). I use six pound line and a spinning reel on a
light to medium pole. I cast out only into the closest wave coming in
and immediately start reeling in my line at a slow to medium speed to
keep the bait in the wave where the Whiting pull food from during the
wave action. This method works each time, every time. It's rare that I
don't catch on on every cast. These are "schoolies", about 10 inches
long and mostly female. Excellent eating as sushi.

I checked with a Scientist who works for the FDA and he told me that
there are NO reports of this fish having parasites, ever. This same
Scientist put out a query among his peers and forwarded their emails
to me. There were about a dozen different people who each had
"Scientist" in their sig-blocks that agreed with his findings. That's
good enough for me.