Читать книгу Seashore - Nick Baker - Страница 11

I remember going ‘shrimping’ as a kid, hunting for prawns for my supper. This involved tossing bait into the pools and coming back later to scoop up the unfortunate crustaceans into a net. But I found that some of the bait was seemingly being pulled by an invisible force across the bottom of the pools while other pieces exploded into hundreds of fragments, which would then be shunted around rapidly, resembling underwater fireworks. Other bits had simply disappeared! Very soon I was gazing into the pools trying to figure out who the thieves were. It was at that moment I was hooked, and so I became a rock pool investigator.

Many of the residents of rock pools are opportunists – they take whatever they can, whenever they can. They are the scavengers and the waste disposal units of the sea. By placing bait in the pools you are actually recreating something that happens all the time in nature.

When a creature dies anywhere in any ecosystem on the planet, there are a whole host of other creatures ready to return the goodness its body contains back into the living system, and rock pools are no exception. Animals die here, and our coasts are also the last resting place for many other creatures that die at sea and are washed up. Believe me, a body in a rock pool will not last long. But don’t just believe me, try it out for yourself.

Really it’s all about experimenting. Different baits may work better in different places and at different times, but the basic principle is the same. For best results, you need to spread the word to the rock pool community that bait has arrived, and you want the word to reach as many different creatures as quickly as possible.

Nick’s trick

Use the smelliest bait possible and ideally one that contains an element of ‘soup’; soft stuff that will break up into tiny particles and get wafted around in the water currents.

YOU WILL NEED

> smelly bait

> piece of string

OR

> pot of fish paste

> piece of mesh or old stocking

> elastic band

1 Bring your own bait; the smellier the better as this will waft around in the water and draw in creatures from further afield. I have used everything from scraps and trimmings that my local fishmonger has given me, like nice and smelly fish heads and tails, to bacon or ham that I have removed from my own sandwiches.

2 Attach your bait to a piece of string so you can lift the bait out of the water if a particularly greedy or boisterous crab or fish comes along. Many scavengers, such as crabs and blennies, can be very greedy and will leave the scene altogether, taking your bait with them.

3 If the idea of handling smelly dead fish bits really fills you with disgust, there is a neater little trick that also works well using a pot of fish paste. Take the lid off your pot and stir up the contents a bit. Then cover with the mesh or old stocking and secure firmly with the elastic band.

4 Pop the pot into a rock pool and that’s it! Just sit back and watch as the residents come scuttling.