Dan's Papers - July 13, 2007 - Kevin McAllister the Baykeeper

Thanks to a movement, the phrase "slow food" has a quiet and certain patina in the food world, one that has always been more interested in helping farmers and artisans than delaying cooks. I first met Kevin McAllister at a Slow Food dinner where he lectured on saving our bays.

Kevin McAllister grew up in Moriches Bay in a house on Bay Street. Pretty prophetic I would say, as Kevin is our bay keeper striving to preserve the East End's bay heritage.

After graduating from Morrisville College in upstate New York with an undergraduate degree in natural resources conservation, he continued his education in Florida earning a degree in Marine Biology and a Master of Science degree in Coastal Management - taking a look at the intrinsic link between land and sea. The catalyst for returning home was to share his love for the great outdoors surfing, scuba diving, rowing and kayaking with his wife and son.

While in Florida, he heard about a new coalition of organizations seeking applicants for the newly created position of baykeeper. At the time, Robert Kennedy Jr. was President of the Waterkeeper Alliance when only 11 waterkeepers existed. Today there is an international movement afoot with 160 waterkeepers mainly in North America and sprinkled through Canada, Europe and Australia. He was unanimously selected by a panel of committee members. Officially, to be truly independent, the organization moved forward as Peconic Baykeeper Inc., a not-for-profit organization.

Kevin's work here is locally focused and yet part of a much bigger picture. "Estuary's are woven into the fiber of our communities. They need close attention and nurturing from the people. Consciousness about how the bounty of shellfish and finfish is affected and the priority is to protect and sustain perpetually what the seas gave us. We can't take and not give back. We also can't allow water quality to deteriorate and let important habitats to be lost such as tidal wetlands (the kidneys of the bay) to cleanse the water that comes into our bays," says Kevin.

His favorite delicacy is blue crab and how he catches it is different from the norm. He puts on a mask, snorkel and heavy work gloves. From July through September, as the crabs get to size measuring 5 to 6 inches across the top shell or carapace, he literally crawls around the eel grass beds which can grow to two feet in shallow water areas. When a crab sees a fisherman, they hide in the tall grass for protection. Kevin tricks them by wiggling a couple of fingers in his left hand, then crouching to grab them with his right hand - he admits - a sneaky thing to do. Once, when he had a bushel full of crabs, with a wet towel over the top and carrying it close to his bare chest, a large bay crab with pinchers came up and locked down into his chest. In extreme pain he lowered himself into the water to release the crab and the pain. The crab swam away. It's a lot of work to crack and pick fresh crabs with nutcrackers. Kevin steams them for 10 to 15 minutes or just until the shells turn red. Newspapers are spread over a large table to sit at for 1 to 1 1/2 hours to enjoy the sweet flavor of the crabs with lots of cold beer.

When clamming Kevin likes to tread, which means wading in water waist high burying his feet a couple of inches down, and, with a twisting motion rotates his feet across like crushing grapes in a wine vat, he'll cover some distance to field clams in the bay bottom with bare feet or sweat socks for protection. In the course of clamming he'll have a tire tube with a bushel basket inside the donut tethered to his waist. As he locates the clams with his feet he will bend over and submerge to pick them out with his hands. Most clammers clam with a rake but Kevin kind of likes "the old school-style." At times, when clamming, he will occasionally see a bay scallop moving by propulsion. Scallops snap their shells open and closed to propel themselves by squeezing out the water. In this way they protect themselves moving laterally through the water column from one location to another. Kevin doesn't necessarily go after scallops, but if he is lucky enough to catch one he will pry it open and scoop out the abductor muscle with the half shell, experiencing the sweetest flavor of the bay.

If you would like to learn more about the bays please call Kevin at (631) 653 4804 or e-mail him - mac@peconicbaykeeper.org