The Razor Fish are far and few
Where once so thick and close
How can they all have gone so fast
Along the Spencer coast
Once they were just used for bait
But now the high demand
To have them on a gourmet's plate
Is causing quite some harm
They are tasty sure enough
But it hardly seems worthwhile
To kill them for the tiny snack
Within their giant shell
The Razor Fish, or Razor Clam as they are known outside of South Australia, is a large fan shaped shellfish found with the pointy end buried in the mud and the top few centimetres exposed. Just enough to inflict significant damage on the bare foot of the unwary! They once carpeted the seagrass beds that cloaked the calm shallow inlets near Adelaide but they are now quite rare near any population centre. You need to travel further afield to places like the Upper Spencer Gulf to see them in any numbers and even there the populations are plummeting. The bag limit is 25 per day but the day will soon come when this will have to be lowered. They are obviously being over-fished.
The loss of the Razor Fish is a tragedy in its own right even if it does mean less cut feet but they are also very important in the ecosystem. As well as being efficient filter feeders that clean up the water they are also a hard surface for epiphytic algae and for a range of animals. If you look hard in the photo you will see an abalone attached to one of the shells. So the loss of Razor Fish is also the loss of a suite of other organisms that all have their place in the ecosystem.
The other tragedy is that they are really not worth the effort as a sea-food. They are trendy for sure and the rarer they get the more status they hold. A bit like a bears gall bladder in China! But the small white adductor muscle, which is the only edible part, is such a small part of the large animal and you still need to get rid of the waste. The reality is that the 25 Razor Clams you have spent the day collecting on the mudflats will barely provide a decent meal for one person and will fill the rubbish bin with smelly waste. The flavour is also very strong. I think scallops are a much better bet and consuming those is much better for the environment.
.
Where once so thick and close
How can they all have gone so fast
Along the Spencer coast
Once they were just used for bait
But now the high demand
To have them on a gourmet's plate
Is causing quite some harm
They are tasty sure enough
But it hardly seems worthwhile
To kill them for the tiny snack
Within their giant shell
The loss of the Razor Fish is a tragedy in its own right even if it does mean less cut feet but they are also very important in the ecosystem. As well as being efficient filter feeders that clean up the water they are also a hard surface for epiphytic algae and for a range of animals. If you look hard in the photo you will see an abalone attached to one of the shells. So the loss of Razor Fish is also the loss of a suite of other organisms that all have their place in the ecosystem.
The other tragedy is that they are really not worth the effort as a sea-food. They are trendy for sure and the rarer they get the more status they hold. A bit like a bears gall bladder in China! But the small white adductor muscle, which is the only edible part, is such a small part of the large animal and you still need to get rid of the waste. The reality is that the 25 Razor Clams you have spent the day collecting on the mudflats will barely provide a decent meal for one person and will fill the rubbish bin with smelly waste. The flavour is also very strong. I think scallops are a much better bet and consuming those is much better for the environment.
.
