Sunday, July 8, 2007

good enough to eat (almost)

























"Tiny creatures known as marine borers, which for decades had been absent because of high levels of industrial pollution, are starting to make a comeback. They are called borers for a reason - they like to eat timber. Wooden pilings such as the ones beneath this pier are their favourite. The borers come in two varieties. One is a crustacean, Limnoria lignorum (otherwise know as a gribble), the other a mollusc usually referred to as a shipworm. Their return to New York is an ironic side-product of the city's campaign to clean up both the East and Hudson Rivers. Only last week, authorities announced that local striped bass, banned from dinner tables for the past 23 years because of contamination, are now almost fit again for human consumption"

1 comment:

Adam said...

Rumor has it some shipworms, or maybe it's the gribbles, reach lengths in excess of 20ft.