Take Two From The Sea (1970s)

[Music] is [Music] this is sound roll number 14 wild sound effects for leaving the docks and heading out into the channel That voice you just heard belongs to David the one with the beard and a stubborn look in his eye he's my sound man and that's me Bart we're making a film and it's called take two from the sea it All Began back in Hollywood the biggies at Universal Studios wanted to talk to Bart and me about making a movie since they refused to discuss the project over the phone we could only assume that it was big really big Bart politely asked me to wait outside while he clinched the deal he claimed that I looked unprofessional and potentially Shifty Bart has such a nice way of putting things Hollywood isn't a bad place to be you can always find a familiar face when Bart walked outside I knew instantly that the project was something beyond our wildest imaginations and it was our assignment clams and oysters at least they gave us a big fancy camera van to travel around in since we knew nothing about clams and even less about oysters we had no idea where to look for them with a little research we discovered that clams and oysters are found wherever salt and freshwater mix in bays and estuaries on all coasts of the United States so we started our search up the West Coast hey Bart yeah have you ever thought of the possible number of other things we could be making this film about we're not getting we're not getting money to shoot other things Highwire acts lady wrestlers oh yeah I thought about it you know but we got paid to make this film okay well I want you to know really that the only reason I'm doing this is for the money David I had no Illusions about why you're in this film I thought maybe are friendship might enter into it our partnership movies move clams and oysters don't move they lay right on the bottom they don't move from the time they're born you know something David you will pay for this abuse you'll pay as long as I don't have to eat any oysters part of you will be up to your neck and oysters right up to the neck David well Bart was right about that we really got into it at least bark did there were so many oysters on the flats that you could hardly move without stepping on them but just as I predicted the oysters were just lying there walking around on those Flats was kind of rough but the same oysters I was stepping over that morning turned out to be a lot easier to harvest later that day at high tide what kind of oysters can we find on the west coast well on the west coast we have both the Olympia and the Pacific oysters the Olympia oyster is an oyster native to this country uh originating way back in the beginning of of time our Pacific oyster is a an oyster that was first brought into our country in the early 20s uh of a Japanese origin this dredge that we're going out to now is is a dredge that is harvesting Pacific oysters Pacific oysters right can you give me an idea how the uh how the dredge Works how it actually functions to get the oysters well it actually acts like a big vacuum sweeper it just lifts the oysters up off the bottom onto a conveyor belt the conveyor brings them on up to the surface transferring them to a barge we can Harvest with the two men approximately a th000 bush an hour and a well planted bed that sounds like a lot of oysters and it is but that was Pacific Oysters next we saw Olympia oysters which are much smaller they're considered quite a delicacy chucking them is easy when you know how Olympia oysters are usually grown in Oyster dkes which are nothing but big man-made tide pools what do the dyes do well the dyes provide protection from the extremes of heat and coal like a cushion of protection of water at low tide I see further up the coast we found another way to farm oysters raft culture in this method they grow oysters on strings which are hung from rafts because the oysters are stacked on top of each other like apartments in a high-rise building you can grow a lot more oysters in a smaller area and because the oysters are floating in the plankton Zone they get more food this makes them grow faster and [Music] larger even the son of an oyster farmer has to work up his courage before he can down his first draw oyster that confirmed all my suspicions Having learned all we could about west coast oysters we set out to investigate clams the next day Bart figured he could do his preliminary research best from the back of a [Music] speedboat [Music] we finally located some clams on a nearby Beach I figured I could learn the most about West Coast clams from a man who really knows what clams are all about clams look different from oysters but they're both by Valve shellfish the generic name for them is mollusk this looks like a good spot we'll try right here for some of our clamps what the GRE that's the Eel Grass that I'm Shoveling off I can cut down the clams are in this gravel we've got the butter clams little necks hard shells today we have about a minus one ft tide what's this well that's a cockle now those are good eating all the clams are very excellent eating but a cockle is a little bit strong so we always use that in chowder we run it through a meat grinder and make it into chowder that's a little neck that's a good one here's another one that's a butter clam there that's a good steamer oh here's another larger butter clam we'll use that for clam chowder oh do clams make pearls too well they make a pearl but it's a very irregular Pearl and not good in color you have to have an oyster to make a real pearl that you can sell on the market save that one that'll make a good eating we just got about enough in the bucket there for a good mess for you and I those clams were really terrific digging your own makes them taste even better but there's more than one way to get a clam people who harvest clams for a living use more efficient methods like the oyster dredge we saw earlier this clam dredge uses Jets of water to stir up the bottom and lift the clams onto a conveyor belt when I heard about this process I was skeptical but it turns out the dredges don't hurt the bottom they find all sorts of clams on the west coast Gaper clams cockal razor clams butter clams and gu Ducks guy ducks are the largest and one of the most popular West Coast clams since they sort the clams by size the men have to make several decisions a [Music] second [Music] the next day we shipped all our exposed film back to Hollywood set a little prayer and headed across the Rockies to our next location the Gulf Coast the first thing we had to get used to on the Gulf Coast was the pace of life down here oysters are the big thing on the Gulf Coast David was still curious about why people go for oysters so he decided to find out for himself don't look at that camera yeah you like oysters yeah love them love oysters you like big oysters or small oysters any kind fried any any way that raw prefer do you like oysters I love oysters certainly what do you like about I just oh the freshness when they're nice and salty especially that's one of the best what kind of oyers do you like all kinds you mean you even like them raw right you like raw oysters right I eat oysters do you like them yeah yeah how come cuz they taste good well my father forced me to eat them your father forced you to eat them well yeah he said that you know they really are good you ought to try them and you know I didn't want to so he said try it so I said okay and I really like them then what about when you eat oysters how many oysters do you eat at one time about at least a dozen probably the most we ever had was about 10 dozen 10 dozen yeah you sat down and ate 10 dozen oysters at one time at one time I could eat three three I just talked to a man that could eat six dozen six dozen six dozen and then you can walk around uh ripping doors off and stuff like that after you eat that many oysters it all depends on the individual yeah yeah you know what is that true I mean you know what what's all this talk about oysters oysters they believe oysters has a tendency to build within themselves you know build what build their nature up now let's get more specific uh what nature uh mother nature mother nature you mean it's make you make you stronger man right right right I don't believe that you know I've heard the same thing a 100 times but I don't believe it it's true do you like oysters yeah I like oysters how come because uh they're good to eat they're tasty if you don't like them you don't like them and if you you'll get used to them probably I don't think you can get used to an oyster uh you either like it after you've tried it or you don't I don't know I got used to and they're okay now I think they were good oh yeah I love the T they're really good they taste very good I just love them I like them the last person we interviewed turned out to be something of an expert she said that if we really wanted to find out what oysters are all about we'd have to try them ourselves David had certain reservations sure I had reservations there's an old saying he who ate the first raw oyster was a brave man and I am not a brave man Jean was was a walking oyster encyclopedia and Bart was really soaking it up it was nice to meet a girl who was so well informed oysters it turns out are a very healthy food she told us that they're high in protein and low in calories they're in a class with milk a half dozen oysters on the half shelf for example contain only about 70 calories both oysters and clams give you a good supply of iron and vitamins oysters are full of all sorts of goodies that the body needs that you don't get from most other Foods funny I never knew Bart was so interested in nutrition and the great thing about it all is that there are so many ways to prepare them meanwhile the Moment of Truth had arrived for me for some people oysters take a little getting used to fortunately David's UNC reaction didn't keep Jean and me from enjoying a terrific dinner the next day Bart planned to shoot a local oyster boat and we headed out into the Bayou Country hey Bart this is at least the 10th time we've been over this bridge very is pretty bread isn't it Dave look I think it's a good idea to go out and shoot a clam barge I think it's really a fine thing for this film at the same time I think it would be nice if we knew where we were going follow the water there's water here there's water over there there's water all over this Place haven't you been looking around set a tall stand of trees next to a sign for watch it next to a sign why don't you look at your map there find it on the map come on give me a break the map's not going to help us and it's not a clamb boo Dave it's an oyster bars there are no CL over there just keep driving please trust me I will get you there how he got us there is another story it was hotter than a steamed clam so Bart rented a portable fan we do everything first class [Music] [Music] young oysters are harvested so they can be transplanted in a less crowded bed where they'll grow better Gulf coast oysters are the same type as east coast oysters but since the water is warmer in the Gulf the oysters mature in 2 years instead of three normally oysters grow about an inch a year because the water is low in Salt the clams and oysters here taste sweeter less salty that makes sense at first Bart told me there were no clams down here but he was wrong again on the eastern part of the gulf they scoop up Venus Sunray clams while we were shooting David started picking up a strange sound on his ear phones at first Dave thought it was another airboat but it turned out to be a state inspector flying in to check the dredging operation in every state where clams and oysters are harvested there's a government organization that regulates the industry inspection like a lot of the other oyster men around here the skipper is of slavonian descent how's your oysters running kind of skinny Max going to be uh beding from natural seed ground when it opens up yeah we're going to bet a few for one month these inspectors do a lot to help the oystermen they control the Harvest to prevent depletion of the oyster beds they inspect the waters where shellfish grow to make sure that it's clean and they supervise the planning of oyster shells on which young oysters grow we found out how that was done several times a year barges loaded with several tons of empty oyster shells are towed out to the bays and the shells are scattered overboard there's a method to this madness young oyster larv are swimming around in the water and they need something to latch on to in order to grow the empty shells called cultch provide the best home for the young oysters if we didn't give oysters this helping hand they'd probably have an even tougher time surviving sailing back to Port I began to realize how many people go to a lot of trouble to make sure that oysters survive I guess they must be worth it maybe I really hadn't given them a [Music] chance that evening we headed up to the east coast where people have been eating clams and oysters for hundreds of years one of the oldest ways to gather clams is by raking for them in shallow water but finding a clam breaker wasn't as easy as we expected who said it was going to be easy I I think there's got to be another way to get out here B no no I I think this is it I I couldn't find any other does the guy get out here this way yeah the same way if I could he didn't come out this ways he does this every day little further and we'll find him we'll find him all right all right F don't hang on to me okay let's try to play this straight try to play it straight I play it just fine hi how you doing uh my name is Bart and uh this is David Hi and um well what we're doing is uh we're we're making a film about clams and oysters uh if you wouldn't mind we' just like to take some footage of what you're doing is that okay go ahead right ahead well that's great ready Dave sure turn it on da okay boss some say the early settlers stayed close to the coast because they depended on clams and oysters to keep them alive during the long hard Winters standing there in our present condition the icy waters swirling about our knees it was easy to imagine what those Winters must have been like so we vowed that from now on we would film clams under drier circumstances the driest boat we could find was the soft clam dredge most soft clams are taken in Northern New England in the Chesapeake Bay some people call them Steamers soft clams are easy to spot because their necks stick out beyond their shells riding up the East Coast we ran across another dredge this one was harvesting hard clamps since they get clams of all sizes out here they are sorted by size as they come up out of the water later on that day we found out more about the different sizes of clams and what they're used for the nice thing about digging your own clams is that you really work up an appetite that way so they tell me testing 1 2 3 testing 1 2 3 testing testing hello [Applause] hello hi how you doing hi Hi listen uh you're not going to believe this but we're taking some pictures and we like to take some pictures of you and talk to you is that all right yes it is great well here's what we'll do how about if you look right over there at that guy if you look at him he won't bite yall set Bart yeah okay go along the edge of the shore here I believe there'd probably be a lot of different kinds of clams right yes there's quite a few different kinds you want to tell me what they are yes uh you can find a Little Neck that's this one small one yes then the Cherry Stone the next in size all right and the Chow clam Chow clam's a big guy the larger one yes if if people were going to eat this little tiny one this Little Neck how would they eat it uh raw and how about this uh how about this one you call the Cherry Stone raw and steamed and this one uh in chow the big one's a chowder clamp yes okay thank you very much okay cut by this time I thought I'd seen every kind of clam there was but there turned out to be yet another kind the surf clam using electronic depth recorders to find them this surf clam dredge can scoop up clams when the ocean is 200 ft deep operating 30 Mi off the Atlantic coast this area is noted for its waves called slow rollers it takes about 20 minutes to fill the dredge and in the meantime there's nothing to do but lie around and try not to think about the slow rollers these were the biggest clams we'd seen yet they must use them for chowder for once David was right they do use them to make chowder and minced clams people have been studying clams and oysters for a long time but as we found out at a marine laboratory there's always a lot more to learn what kind of work are you doing part we're studying reproduction of o oysters in the laboratory reproduction then you have different sexes in here yes there are male and female oysters in this tank uh in the spring of the year the female release their eggs into the water and the male release their sperms and fertilization occurs what's the movement I see in there well what you probably seen are larval oysters that uh have arrived on the shell after several weeks of development through laral stages in the water and we refer to them as spat well what happens to them do they all grow up oh no uh very few of those will survive as a matter of fact only two or three of them will actually develop into a full grown oyster on that shell well how do you tell the difference between males and females telling a male from a female oyster is a very difficult thing to do as a matter of fact an individual oyster such as any one of these could change its sex several times in its lifetime change an oyster's lot is not a happy one besides the problems of changing its sex from time to time and oyster has several natural enemies starfish can wipe out hundreds of Acres of clams and oysters the starfish just pry open the shell and suck out the clams and oysters the drill as you might have guessed actually drills a hole in the Shell to get at its victim it figures that these Predators must be very fond of clams and oysters since they go to such lengths to get them with all these Predators oysters need help to survive hatcheries are designed to do just that the hatcheries do some something they call aquaculture which is a $3 word for oyster farming what they do is experiment to find new ways to grow oysters like growing them on plastic sheets once the oysters are old enough to fend for themselves they are planted in oyster beds a few months ago I would have been surprised to see that they still use sailboats to get oysters but nothing surprises me anymore Bart said that I was going to be up to my neck and clams and oysters and he was right [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] la [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] when we got back to Hollywood Bart hit on the terrific idea of having a clam bake kind of a promotional gig for the film we needed to pick up a few things at the supermarket I had no idea you could just go to the market and get clams and oysters it's amazing what a variety of forms they come in yeah and they're so easy to fix even David can do it with all the new methods of packaging clams and oysters you can buy them any month of the year there's an old myth that you shouldn't eat oysters in a month that has an r in it but that's not true anymore in cans you can get steamed clams oyster bisque oyster stew New England clam chowder and Manhattan clam chowder Frozen you can get breaded clams breaded oysters oysters mouret oysters Rockefeller and clams casino and of course you can get them fresh at the seafood counter fresh oysters and fresh clams there that should just about do [Music] it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh when we finished the film The Big Shots at the studio were very happy with it they called us back because they had an even bigger project for us to attack I knew that this time it was something big really big like well like whales [Music]