Reporter's Notebook published Nov. 26, 2011

Hagfish: Possibly more than you want to know

Del Norters may want to know more about hagfish, which will be sold and exported from Top Blue Marine, opening soon on Front Street. (Plenty of other fish will also be sold at the market, said Marcos Won, the company’s CEO.)

While they’re said to be tasty off the grill, hagfish are not exactly a candidate to replace the Warriors as Del Norte High’s nickname. Nevertheless, here are some fun facts about the fish that are about to assume a higher local profile:

• Although sometimes called “slime eels,” they are actually considered fish.

• A 300 million-year-old hagfish fossil found in Illinois is very similar to modern hagfish, suggesting there has been very little evolutionary change.

• The slime discharged by hagfish when agitated is used in some Asian cosmetics, said  Won.

• Some scientists believe that hagfish produce the slime to suffocate predators by blocking their  gills or to form a protective shield.

• Hagfish tie themselves in a knot, then pass the knot down  the length of their body to clean themselves of their own slime.

• Hagfish can go for months without feeding.

• One hagfish can produce enough material to turn a 5-gallon bucket of water into slime.

—  Adam Spencer

Reading, ’riting and rifles

At the Jed Smith Mountain Men Turkey Shoot last Saturday, club president John Clark described a simpler time — his own childhood.

Clark said he routinely took his rifle with him to grade school, just in case a ground squirrel or something even more delectable crossed his path along the way.

He would lean the .22-caliber up in a corner of the schoolhouse during classes and then collect it at the end of the day, he said.

“Ten or 12 kids in school brought guns and nobody had any problems,” he remembered, “It was kind of the honor system; respect for other people and their ways.”

— Emily Jo Cureton

Got room for the chief?

The Crescent City Police Department is looking for new places to host “Chatting with the Chief,” public sessions in which Chief Doug Plack meets with the public.

Any businesses interested or people who have suggestions for a venue to hold the two-hour meetings that present the public with an opportunity to express concerns or ask questions about the community or law enforcement should contact the Police Department at 464-2133.

The chats are held the third Wednesday and last Saturday of every month.

—  Anthony Skeens

Master food preserving class

The University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Office is offering a Master Food Preserver Program to teach how to can, dry pickle and freeze food.

Classes meet at the Eureka Northcoast Co-Op on Saturdays, Feb. 4 to March 31 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The fee for the training is $125 and includes a book and training manual.

Space is limited and the application deadline is January 10, 2012. Applications and more information are available on the UCCE Humboldt website at http://cehumboldt.ucdavis.edu/Plant_Science/Master_Food_Preserver/

The Master Food Preservers will be a group of trained, dedicated volunteers who will be teaching food safety and preservation methods.

—Kelley Atherton

Regulation, not prohibition?

Cannabis consultant Jason Browne spoke out during the public comment period at the county Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday in response to a Triplicate story published Nov. 10, “County may target pot dispensaries.”

“There were some inconsistent comments in there that stated they were looking at possibly banning something that from the court’s outlook cannot be banned but can be regulated for the health and safety of constituents,” Browne said.

He asked the supervisors to consider forming a commission to address concerns about the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries through a “fair and open process.”

“It is a constitutional property right as well as a constitutional patient’s right to grow their own cannabis,” he said. “Certain counties are looking at property regulating and having these establishments that can pay taxes and donate to county coffers, support the county and be something positive.”

— Emily Jo Cureton