The coastline offers the survivor a wide variety of food sources if you know what to look for. The major problem is a psychological one: you may have to eat some fairly unappetising items. The essential precaution is to learn as much as you can about the subject first by familiarising yourself with the food sources the seashore has to offer and trying some of the techniques described below. You will be able to overcome your initial reluctance. Then, if you find yourself in a survival situation near the coast, you have already won half the battle.
Drinking water is always one of the survivor’s top priorities. By digging a shallow well just above the high-water level you will be able to collect fresh (if a little brackish) water.
Don’t dig too deep, or the sea will seep in. This is a good technique to practise next time you visit a beach. If you have a vessel to boil water in, boil sea water and collect the steam in a clean cotton cloth. Squeeze out the cloth and you have distilled, drinkable water. Now it is time to forage for food.
The coastline is abundant with food sources, but there are a few basic rules to remember to avoid food poisoning or contamination from all the waste man so thoughtfully dumps into the sea. The edible items discussed here are all standard.
Tropical beaches are more abundant but so are the dangers. The basic rules are:
1. Don’t eat anything too brightly coloured red, yellow or green. It is a natural sign of poison being present.
2. Don’t eat any items washed up or away from their natural environment.
3. Avoid anything with a very strong smell.
4. If in doubt, don’t eat it.
Shellfish
Only eat shellfish you find alive; dead ones can be used as bait. Bivalve molluscs feed by filtering food particles out of the water. They also filter out and retain bacteria which, in warm weather, multiply and can cause food poisoning to humans. This is especially true of mussels and oysters, which filter large quantities of water daily and relish the warm, soupy conditions near sewage outlets.
Clams (Mya arenaria)
Common in the middle and lower shore, clams look like large mussels and can be up to 10-13 cm (4 inches) across, Wash thoroughly as for cockles and scald for 10 minutes.
Remove the meat from the shell and cut syphons off. The remaining meat should then be fried or baked for 30 minutes or boiled until tender.
Cockles (Cardium edule)
Widely distributed along British coasts, they are normally found 25-75 mm (¼-¾ inch) beneath the surface of the beach. Wash off the mud and sand and stand in clean water for at least six hours. Drop into a pan of boiling water and simmer for five minutes. Eat on their own or with soup.
Limpets (Patella vulgata)
Found on rocks below high water, limpets should be soaked for about six hours then boiled for five minutes. They can be rather tough, but further boiling will tenderize them.
Mussels (Mytilus edulis)
Commonest of European shellfish, are delicious, but you must exercise considerable caution when collecting them. They are responsible for most cases of shellfish poisoning.
Stand in at least two changes of fresh water and check carefully that each one is alive before cooking. They can be boiled, or baked in ashes.
Scallops (Pecten maximus)
These are the classic shells we all recognize; found on the lower shore, they are only uncovered at very low tides. Like clams, they require a lot of cooking. Wash and scald, cut away the white and orange flesh and fry or boil until cooked.
Whelks (Buccinum undatum)
Whelks are the largest of the gastropods (coiled shells). They are very meaty, but require a great deal of boiling otherwise you will still be chewing on the same whelk hours later. Like the smaller winkle, they can be found in rock pools and among seaweed.
Winkles (Littorina littorea)
You will need a large number of these small, spiral-shaped pointed shells, normally dark grey in colour, for a decent meal. Soak them in fresh water to clear them of sand, then plunge into boiling water for about 10 minutes. Extract the meat with the proverbial winkle pin.
Preparing shellfish
1. Test mussels by sideways pressure: if the animal is alive you will feel some
resistance.
2. Other shellfish are tested by forcing the shell open a fraction of an inch. If the animal is alive and well it will shut again quickly once you release the pressure. If it is
already open, opens wide with ease or fails to shut again, it is safer to assume the thing is dead and that you should not eat it.
3. Always wash seashore edibles in plenty of fresh water. Shellfish should be left to stand in clean water overnight if possible. Check they are still alive when you come to cook them: a single dead one will contaminate the rest of your meal.
4. Always cook thoroughly to kill naturally present bacteria.
Seaweeds
Most seaweeds are edible raw or cooked, and they form a valuable addition to your diet providing your water supply is adequate, because they tend to make you thirsty. They are found in inshore waters and attached to rocks at low water. In addition to general rules, there are three specific rules concerning seaweed:
• Only eat fresh, healthy specimens. Eat nothing with strong odours or flavour: seaweed should be firm to the touch, not wilted, slimy or fishy-smelling.
• Do not eat thread-like or slender forms. Sea sorrels contain small amounts of sulphuric acid which can severely upset your stomach. They betray their presence by bleaching out other plants nearby. The test, if you are not sure what you’ve found, is to crush a little of it in your hand. The released acid will make the plant decay quickly and in 5-10 minutes it will give off an unpleasant odour.
• Inspect seaweed carefully and shake out any small organisms, e.g. tiny crabs.
There are many types of seaweed. Those found in Europe include:
Bladder wrack: Fresh or dry fronds may be used, boiled in soups or stews. It can also be dried to make tea of a sort.
Carragheen (Irish moss): This is found on the rockier Atlantic shores. Tough, feathery and many-branched, it is red/purple to purple/brown. Boil it and eat stewed with fish, meat or other vegetables.
Enteromorpha intestinalis: A mouthful to say but a satisfactory mouthful to eat, this is widely distributed and can be eaten raw or dried and used in soups.
Laver: Found on the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean coasts, this is plentiful around the UK and is eaten in Wales. A thin, leaf-like transparent membrane with fine, wavy flat fronds, it is red, purple and brown in colour. Cut just above the base so you don’t kill the plant off. Wash it thoroughly to remove grit, and simmer slowly. It can be eaten like spinach or rolled into balls, dipped in bread crumbs and fried. If survival cuisine is beyond you, you can still eat it raw.
Sea lettuce: Found in the Atlantic and Pacific, this is lettuce-like in appearance and is coloured light to dark green. It may be eaten raw or used as a vegetable.
Shoreline plants
There are a few plants found along the shore which can provide the survivor with quite reasonable food.
Marsh samphire (Salicornia)
This thrives in salty marshlands along the foreshores of Europe and has been described as the next best thing to asparagus. Ready from the longest day in June to the last day of August, the young shoots can be eaten raw in salads or cooked in a little boiling water.
Drain and add a little butter and pepper if you have any. Eat by stripping the soft flesh away from the hard, spiny stems with your teeth. Marsh samphire now appears on some
Also known as wild spinach, this was the ancestor of our beetroot, sugar beet and spinach. The leaves may be picked from spring to autumn. It is full of natural minerals, especially iron and vitamins A and C. Wash the leaves well and remove the thicker stalks building a fire over the pile: they will cook in their own juices. A better way is to boil them in water. weed, and eels and small fish are often left behind by the tide. A great deal of fluid is stored in the flesh and the spine cavity of fish and, surprisingly, this is not salty. Hunting fish in pools is not easy: traps and spears will both work, but only if you have practised first. A maze trap works well for flatfish and others in coastal areas. It should be about 2-2.5 metres (6-8 feet) across with a mouth of 40-50 cm (2 feet). The outer walls of wood or stones should project 60 cm or so into the trap. Avoid small, spiny fish, which are likely to be poisonous. Fish can be boiled, roasted in a fire, baked in clay or cooked on a spit.
Prepare them by cutting off the heads, removing the guts and cleaning them out. A very sharp survival knife is an essential item here. Small fish can be eaten whole without cleaning. Never eat a fish with a suspiciously powerful odour, sunken eyes or slimy or flabby skin. If in doubt, prod it with your thumb: if it remains dented, do not eat it. Use it
All sea birds are edible, either raw or cooked, although some may taste a little peculiar.
Roasting and baking in clay are good ways of cooking, but boiling is most nutritious as you retain all the juices. Before cooking, a bird should be bled and drawn and the feathers lug worms. And don’t forget that the seashore will be inhabited by dune-dwelling creatures such as mice, rabbits and lizards: all these can go in the survivor’s pot. As in all survival situations, living on the seashore is all about making the maximum use of whatever is available.
As someone intent purely on survival, you cannot afford any sporting niceties. The fishing techniques you will need to use are usually outlawed. You must be able to catch your fish in quantity, and as easily as possible. Before you actually start fishing remind yourself of the danger of water, especially in your weakened physical state. Should you fall in, remember the tip of the old salmon fishermen – throw your arms out crucifix-fashion, and try to float down to a shallow pool where you can wade out. If you panic and throw your arms up in the air you will only sink faster. (In crocodile-infested waters try to stay as dry as possible!)
While fish may seem more easily trapped and hunted than other animals, you must bear in mind that you need to catch an awful lot of fish to provide the same volume of food as a
medium-sized land animal. At the end of the day, your catch must be big enough to justify the time and effort. This will be largely dependent on how well stocked your river is.
Whether you decide to hunt or trap fish, the time-honoured hunting rules apply. Study the fish in your locality, see where the biggest fish prefer to swim as the position of the sun changes, get to know their habits – especially their feeding habit. Once you have caught a fish, study its stomach contents to find out what it was feeding on. The more you know, the easier your task will be.
Hunting fish
Although hunting fish usually produces a smaller catch than trapping them, it can be a quick way to a short-term meal, and is ideally suited to survivors on the move. The hunting tools are also simpler and more easily made than trapping gear.
To catch fish like this you need to be actually in the water. The ideal type of stream is wide, and shallow and clear.
Approach your fish slowly and carefully, with your hands already in the water. Once you are close enough to touch the fish, pass your upturned hands under him very gently.
You will probably fail the first time you do this, out of sheer astonishment, for the fish seem to nestle against your hands. Once your hands are in position, grab the fish. Bend it high in front of you so as to avoid casting your shadow on the water. If the river is too deep to wade into, you can use the same technique from the river bank, using a long spear to catch the fish.
Spear and lure
You can easily make fish spears from available wood, and they can be very effective. They fall into two basic categories – pin and snag. You use the simplest spears to pin the fish to the river bed. They are usually made of a single piece of wood, pronged or split at the point, and crudely barbed. They are very quickly made and very effective. The “snag” or
“leister” spears are more complicated to make. They work by snagging the fish on barbs rather than pinning the fish to the bottom. For this reason they are better than pin spears in deep water. You can make these spears with detachable heads attached to the spear shaft by a length of strong cordage. In this way the fish can thrash around without any risk of
breaking the spear head.
Spears are best used in conjunction with a suitable lure. Simply carve a small fish-shaped piece of wood, modelled on the local “small fry”, and attach it to a long length of cordage. By drawing this along in the water you should be able to attract the attention of a large predatory fish and “lure” it within range of your spear. Because water refracts light you will need to aim slightly below where the target appears to be.
Trapping fish
Methods of trapping fish are more useful to you in the long run as they free you to work on your other important chores. However, the apparatus you need will take longer to make. If you are establishing your survival camp, setting fish traps should be one of your priorities. Your land traps will usually take less effort to set and can be more easily tuned to full effectiveness.
Fish traps can be used for freshwater and saltwater fish. They are very effective but take a good deal of effort to make and are difficult to carry if you decide to move on.
Gill net in a stream
The gill net is perhaps the best way to catch fish, but again it takes time to make it. Stones are used to anchor the bottom of the net and wood floats are set along the top. The net is set at an angle across the river from a suspension line between two suitable anchors.
Maze traps
These are the simplest traps you can construct. They are simply holding pens, which fish can enter easily but cannot leave because of the design of the entrance. When you make this type of trap, make sure that the stakes are securely hammered into the stream bed with a stone maul. Lash the tops of the stakes with cordage – your trap has the constant flow of the river to contend with. If you do have a net, set it across a straight section of river. If the river is shallow, place the net at an angle in the water.
Basket traps
Basket traps are slightly more complicated to make than maze traps, but have the advantage that you can carry them easily to wherever there are the most fish. Place the basket so that the river current flows into the basket entrance and raise the downstream end out of the water. Secure the basket with rocks or slim willow branches. If you have time you can also construct a funnel of stakes to lead the fish into the basket.
Nets
Nets are the hardest fishing aids of all to make, requiring great lengths of cordage. Unless you have nylon cord to unravel for netting material or a gill net in your survival kit, this method of trapping is an unrealistic proposition. When you have one, a net is a first rate piece of fishing equipment.
Hook and line
If you have them, fish hooks and line can be used in an endless variety of ways. The easiest and most effective set-up is to set a fixed line across the river and suspend hooks from it at different depths. In this way you can fish several different levels of the river at the same time. Always make absolutely certain that your hooks are tied on securely – your life may depend upon them.
In the wild, on your own, you may not be lucky enough to have any hooks or line. But you can improvise them from natural materials.
The simplest improvised hook is the “gorge” or “toggle” hook. For this you will need a piece of bone or fire-hardened hardwood. Sharpen this at both ends and secure your line to its middle. When this is baited and taken by the fish it toggles inside the fish’s throat, lodging tight. Thorns can also be turned into improvised hooks, and you might even carve a standing hook from a piece of bone.
Fishing line is far more difficult to improvise than a fish hook. The strongest line you are likely to be able to make is a very thin rawhide line. Although rawhide loses much of its strength when wet, it is still appreciably stronger than most of the plant fibres you will have available. Simply cut a piece of rawhide in a spiral until you have a long, thin fishing line. Soak the line before use and don’t leave it submerged for more than a day or two.
Of the plant fibres you can use, nettle fibres are among the best. But, as with all plant cordage, you will need to gather a lot of nettles, and the process of turning them into cord is slow and laborious. Gather the longest nettles you can find and lay them out to dry in the sun. Once dry, they will have lost their sting and can be handled more easily. Take a mallet and split the stems, remove the pith until only the fibres remain. These can then be rolled on your thigh to produce strong cordage.