A scalloping good time ...

Captain Tuc sizing the catch looking like a real Guern in his traditional Jumper

The Pirates

and

their Booty

Ah- ha, me hearties !!!

taking a break between dive spots

Getting all geared up as I navigate a good drop in spot

Like any of my other outdoor sports, diving makes you hungry and while Jaffa cakes and chocolate biscuits may be a great way to fight off that hunger feeling, there are more adventurous ways of coming by your dinner, diving for your own scallops is one of them.

I can only recommend diving at this time off year in a well fitting drysuit to keep you dry and warm. Thus equipped, I rolled over the side of Fortius into 8 degree water. Divers will know that down there is a whole new world waiting to be discovered. The water at 8 degrees left my head with brain freeze the entire dive. My ears weren't equalising the water pressure properly due to a slight head cold that I now have, which made for a slow decent to the seabed. Apart from the usual scuba equipment we took down a large net bag and descended to 30 metres to hover just above the gravel/sand bottom. The current had a little trickle to the north and made for an effortless dive, taking me past small pieces of reef. Knowing that the seabed dropped off to 42+ metres to my east and that I had Nitrox 32 in my tank, I made sure not to venture over the edge of the reef and push the limits. Passing over small chancre, crabs, small scallops, and the odd dog fish being nosey. I started to get my eye in, they tried to run, they tried to hide, but they were no match for our elite diving skills and within a few short minutes I was picking up some nice size fully grown scallops. While the dive itself was effortless, there was many a scallop but I was simply too slow to grab them due to the tide. After about 35 minutes my task was complete and I had managed to catch a large number of these shelled critters, my bag was full and I sent it up on an air bag for the boys on the boat to grab and then made a slow trip home to the surface. Back on board the scallops were sized as we motored back to St Peter Port. Dinner that night was very good.

Great dive trip today with the boys.
Thanks Stu.

It seems like every time I shuck scallops friends ask me questions on how to clean them. so I decided to make a step by step guide on how to do it.

This, my Blogging friends, is a scallop.


To open a scallop and clean it at the same time, hold the scallop in the palm of your left hand with the rounded part of the shell downwards and the hinge part facing away from yourself. On the right of the hinge as you now view it, where the shell begins to bulge, there will be a slight gap between the two shells. Place the point of the knife into this gap and push the blade upwards and in towards the centre of the shell. Then keeping the blade pressed against the inside of the upper flat shell, cutting through the muscle where it joins the shell moving towards the hinge of the scallop.

When the muscle is cut you will feel the two half's come apart

In the same motion, lift the the flat part of the shell upwards to reveal the contents (unfortunately you will see the muscle and all the organs pulsating at this point),
separate the edible part from the eyes, gills and mantle

There will be a small dark gut sack around the rear edge of the muscle which needs to be cut away, as do any remaining bits of mantle or eyes that are left

Cut the bottom of the muscle away from the rounded part of the shell and you should be left with the good edible parts. Discard everything else overboard. Its best if other divers are are still in the water, so they can appreciate the attention that a nice chum slick generates.

A la Prochaine!