Here's some pictures and a ramble in an attempt to bury my head in the sand from the political goings-on! We've spent a bit time in the sea recently. I turned 27 last week and got a snorkel mask for my birthday (1/8)

I'm (remotely) helping to facilitate a course about food systems at @UVicENVI, and in an effort to look at Scotland a bit more, I've been delving into the ways that we've used coastal resources here for a long long time - including fish, shellfish, seaweeds and so on. (2/8)

Growing up in a small fishing town, I recognised the importance of the sea & fishing for the community and area as a whole but I had never really dived into that history/thought deeply about the current fishing industry. The latter I don't have time or space to go into! (3/8)

The fantastic @HighlandHistory website has been a source of wonder the month. Here's one of my favourite pics taken in a fine spot in Cromarty - fisher women on the shore who were integral to the herring industry. Apparently fisher women in Wick could gut 26 herrings a min! (4/8)

And here's another one taken in around 1910 - a fishing family in the area we call 'Fishertown' in Cromarty. (5/8)

What I'm interested in just now is different forms of gathering food from the sea. Shellfish are hugely important for coastal areas - filter feeders, act as reefs, even sequester carbon - but they also provide local food to local communities, if managed and farmed well. (6/8)

Seaweed, too, is something I'm interested in but had previously not really thought too much about! Here's a great pic I found on @HighlandHistory again. Look at all that stuff, still today used for fertiliser (a practice my dad passed down to me) (7/8)

This thread is as much to say that the coastline around this area fascinates me with so much history and ecological integrity (if managed well!) Anyone have stories of shellfish, seaweeds? Or just local food - have you been eating more local seafood during this pandemic? (8/8)