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Deb Lewis, a well known TO events planner and personality behind Toronto City Events website wrote about her visit to the Shlurpin and Schmakken Shellfish Feastivul at Bier Markt until July 1st 2012 on her personal blog.
Valentine's Weekend Fruit De Mer Platter from Due South / Riddell & Fins. Came with bottle of pink champagne, marie rose sauce, shallot vinegar and chocolate mousse.
CA SEA OTTERS: MONTEREY BAY
•Food & Foraging:
An otter must consume approximately 25% of its bodyweight in prey each day just to stay alive!
•A 75-pound otter can eat up to 1,500 sea urchins a day, or about 25 pounds of seafood (for a 75 pound kid, that would amount to eating 75 quarter pound hamburgers every day!).
•To meet its high energetic and thermoregulation demands, a sea otter’s metabolic rate is 2 to 3 times that of comparatively sized mammals.
•Sea otters consume a wide variety of benthic invertebrates. Prey items include sea urchins, abalone, crabs, mussels, clams, marine snails, marine worms, sea stars, and squid. In total, otters eat at least 50 species of benthic (bottom-dwelling) invertebrates, although individuals tend to specialize on only a few main prey types. Prey specialization and feeding preferences are passed on from mother to pup.
•The strong forelegs paws are used to locate and capture prey.
•Pockets of loose skin under each foreleg are used to store prey it has gathered on the seafloor for the ascent to the surface.
•Rocks are often used as tools to dislodge prey on the sea floor and to break open the hard outer shells of some prey items upon returning to the surface. Floating belly-up in the water, they place rocks on their chests and repeatedly pound hard-shelled prey against them to gain access the meat inside.
•While eating, an otter will roll repeatedly in the water to wash away food scraps from its chest.
•Unlike most other marine mammals, sea otters commonly drink seawater. Although most of the animal’s water needs are met through the consumption of prey, its large kidneys allow it to extract fresh water from seawater. Source: www.seaotters.com
We popped him in the freezer for a little sleep....before we plunge him into boiling water to cook him!