Aquatic Donax deltoides (Pipi)

[Hairyman]

Order: Veneroida

Family: Donacidae

Other Names: Beach pipi, coorong cockle, eugarie, ugari, Goolwa cockle, pipie etc.

Distribution: All Australian coasts with suitable habitat.

Habitat: Sandy beaches with surf, found a few cm under the sand in the intertidal zone.

Identifying Feature: A marine bivalve mollusk with a smooth wedge shaped shell, colour varies from white to off white, brown, yellow or green.

Field Notes: Usually 5 to 6cm sometimes up to 8cm.

Fishing: Can be hand (or foot) harvested from the intertidal zone on sandy beaches. State laws may differ re bag limits and permitted harvesting techniques.
Should purged in seawater or salted water. Popular as stir fry, steamed, boiled, grilled, baked etc.
WARNING; please read this NSW Food Authority info re possible toxins in pipis.http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au...creational-harvest-of-shellfish/#.UNto7eSTzB8 "At any time, do not collect pipis in NSW for human consumption because it is prohibited. Collection of cockles is also not recomended.
Pipis and cockles may contain toxins unless specially purified."



Sunshine beach, Noosa SEQld



Source: Sydney Fish Market website, http://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/Information/SpeciesInfo/tabid/91/xmmid/620/xmid/201/Default.aspx

 

[koalaboi]

Afer much experimentation, I discovered the best way to purge these tasy shellfish was to leave them over night in a bucket of clear salt water with an aerator bubbling away.

Interestingly, in NSW you are unable to take them more than 50m from the beach nor to eat them as they carry toxins. Just over the border in Victoria they are edible and allowed to be taken for food!

KB

 

[BjornJ]

In Scandinavia as a kid we would pick blue mussels in the summer and eat.
Remember that the papers would say when they no longer where dangerous, and from that point on they could be eaten.
From memory there was an algae that was bad for humans, and at some point during the summer the algae was no longer there.
Is it the same with pipis, that they can only be eaten part of the year in NSW?

 

[BjornJ]

link to Koalaboi's info on pipis in NSW can contain toxins:
http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au...creational-harvest-of-shellfish/#.UNto7eSTzB8

"Pipis, cockles

At any time, do not collect pipis in NSW for human consumption because it is prohibited. Collection of cockles is also not recomended.

Pipis and cockles may contain toxins unless specially purified."

 

[Hairyman]

Thanks for the info fellas, I've added it to the OP.

 

[koalaboi]

As I got older, i thought that eventually I would get it...but I don't:

http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/fisheries...ates/molluscs-all-other/pipis-now-and-forever

KB

 

[darren]

One of the reasons for the restrictions in nsw is over fishing. Certain groups would go to beaches in areas like Port Stephens and take shovels, sieves and box trailers and literally fill box trailers full. Fishermen in the areas talk of much lower numbers these days unfortunately. The practice is still quite common and rarely policed.