“I've also taken sea beet home and eaten it and had adverse reactions to it as well, and you've got to be a bit careful, because sometimes some of these plants, particularly along the seawall, we're soaking up nutrients and things from the mud, and the mud, over many, many years has got lots of pollutants in it. They used to paint the bottoms of the boats with anti-fouling paint, and that's got terribly noxious chemicals that are still in the mud here, so you've got to be a bit careful of what you're eating. Foraging can be hazardous, (laughs) as I have learned, to my cost.

You know, wildlife is different from us. I mean, they'll have different resilience to certain chemicals and things, and obviously eat things that we wouldn't be eating. Things like the pollutants in the estuary do cause problems for wildlife, you know, those pollutants end up in the food chain. They'll end up in the crustaceans, which then end up in the fish, which then end up in the seals, and of course, you know, every time it goes up the food chain, those pollutants are intensifying, you know, concentrating more and more. 

I believe some of the pollution that's in the water and in the mud has caused problems for seal numbers and fish stocks and things, and shellfish, obviously, that's not a good combination. 

Of course, once these things are in the water and in the mud… you know, it's a moment to put these things out there, but then it's like, you know, hundreds of years before nature can regulate itself.”