A turnstone near Nimmo’s Pier in the Claddagh in Galway late last year.
The great thing about living in Galway is that I am always discovering new places. The stretch of rocks at the waterline west of the pier is full of large mussels – ideal for steaming and a natural, delicvious and free source of food that anyone can harvest for themselves. I only discovered this before Xmas, and I had to use a paper coffee cup to fill up with mussels since it was the only container I was carrying at the time. While I was rooting about among the rocks, a turnstone was doing much the same, looking for food too. Rather than flee, it seemed curious as to what I was doing – which was pointing a big lens at it when I took this picture.
You’re a brave man to eat mussels from that location. There are bound to be outflows into the Corrib and Lough Atalia which will sweep over those filter feeding mussels. There is also the outlet from Mutton Island which would be swept in by the tide twice daily.
Hi Steven,
The spot where I picked the mussels is very close to Mutton Island, but that is probably less of a risk than the outflows that you mentioned (most of which are closer to Salthill). So far, I haven’t had a bad reaction and I have cooked mussels that I picked along the shore at least half a dozen times. I usually let the mussels sit in salt water overnight to filter them out a bit. I often see guys picking mussels by the sackful when the tide is out in Salthill. I presume they sell their harvest to local restaurants so I suspect that a lot of people have eaten local mussels, if only unwittingly.
/John