A clean spot to harvest ocean water (or shellfish)

Hi All,
I'm working on making my own sea salt, and I wanted a reasonably clean place to harvest this water. Away from shipping lanes and sewage dumps and whatnot. I came across a great resource that I did not know existed.

The government tests the water along the coast to classify areas as ok or not ok to harvest shellfish for human consumption. They update them regularly and I figure if the shellfish are ok, then the ocean water must not be too bad either.

Here is the one for Maine. https://www.maine.gov/dmr/fisheries/shellfish/shellfish-closures-and-aquaculture-leases-map

If you search for Shellfish Classification Areas %yourstate% you should find them.

If you want to harvest shellfish, grow shellfish, or harvest sea water, these maps may be a great resource to you. Each state is a little different.

I made my own seasalt once, and I agree - trying to find an "OK" spot to get a jug of gick-free seawater is harder than it sounds.

My closest ocean is more like an inland sea than the big deep and the runoff into it is downright scary. Most people don't realize what nasty stuff gets washed off roads from car tires, let alone leaks of other car fluids, let alone other sources. This is why I'm glad to read about raingarden projects as most of those include plants that are good at cleaning the water.

We so need more wetland areas to be rehabilitated, as they are so good at sequestering the sort of stuff that comes from runoff from land.

Good luck with your experiment!

While I am not experienced with water quality, I follow your logic and agree. There are some places that utilize mollusks to indicate if water is safe for drinking or not. If they are present where you are obtaining the water, I would think that you are at least as safe as you can be without conventional testing.

Timothy Norton wrote:While I am not experienced with water quality, I follow your logic and agree. There are some places that utilize mollusks to indicate if water is safe for drinking or not.

Poland's system looks really cool. Quite the mixture of high tech and low tech!

I'm not an expert on water quality either, but I know some of the concerns that have been raised in my region, and it's incredibly hard to separate scare stories from real risks, because of the difficulty getting reliable info.

There was a big scare on the West Coast of Vancouver Island after the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster. Then there never actually seemed to be a big deal when stuff was supposed to arrive in horrible concentrations.

I do know of areas near me where there are complaints of poor septic system management, but that's the sort of place where artificial wetlands/reefs could do wonders as most of what one worries about from poop coolaid are microbes and nutrients. Plants, filter feeders and fish are a great solution to those effluents.

I think you link about gov't testing is a great place to start. Then I'd observe the tides and currents to get a feel for how the water may be travelling. If you're planning to make a lot of salt to use, you might consider it worth the cost to get the water tested yourself, before you invest all the energy into the project. I was doing it on top of my woodstove one winter. I was amazed how long it took for that final change from slurry to crystals, but have faith - it will get there given enough time. A low humidity environment would have helped a lot!