Vancouver Island gooseneck barnacles may soon appear on a menu or in a seafood market near you.
Five Vancouver Island First Nations have received $25,000 to market the barnacles to consumers.
Their shape resembles a goose head and neck.
They are a delicacy in Portugal and Spain, and aboriginal fishermen on the west coast of Vancouver Island have been selling them to restaurants and wholesalers.
Alex Gagne of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council said the money will help determine the needs of chefs and how to better market the product.
This fishery can be sustained because those harvesting the barnacles are using small vessels, known as the “mosquito fleet,” Gagne said.
Funding comes from B.C.’s Buy Local program and is part of a $2-million effort to promote B.C. foods.
Agriculture Minister Pat Pimm said the recipients are an integral part of the Island’s economy and provide consumers with fresh and healthy local foods.
Dwane MacIsaac, executive chef of Victoria’s Pescatores Seafood and Grill and the Oyster, at 614 Humboldt St., said, “I haven’t had them in years but they are beautiful.”
MacIsaac had them as a child in Newfoundland.
“Simply steam them,” he said. “You can add whatever flavour you like to them. Think of escargot, or periwinkles.”
Because of their small size, they can be cooked quickly.
“Then you just get the flavour of the ocean from the body of them and squeeze lemon on them and garlic and all that good stuff,” MacIsaac said.
If they become available locally, the chef said he would love to offer them in his restaurant.
— Times Colonist and Alberni Valley Times
