MAYBE THOSE SARDINES WEREN’T SUCH A GOOD IDEA

Fresh off the boat

A 200-mile drive along California’s central coastline between Ventura and San Luis Obispo is a passport to a different world —-a world of deserted beaches, rolling hills blooming with wildflowers and tiny seaside towns with names like Halycon, Harmony and Cayucos,

deserted beaches

.Here, the fruit and vegetables have been picked earlier in the day from the surrounding fields and fish can be bought straight from the fishing boats, caught the same morning. And the prices? Crab is $8 a lb, sardines $2 a lb and halibut is $13 a lb

Sadly, not everything along the coast is copacetic. Seals and other marine animals are being washed up dying and dead on the beaches, poisoned by demoic acid, a toxin transmitted from small fish and shellfish.
  Newspapers and local television stations are carrying warnings about the dangers of eating contaminated seafood.

  Maybe barbecuing and eating those sardines we bought off the boat the other night wasn’t such a good idea.