Thanks for the recipes--I'll try them. I was told by friends that live in FL the big ones just aren't good, due to the texture and taste, but I tried (several times) anyway. Smaller ones are great on the grill.
I'm very fortunate to live in MS, where people for the most part understand that animals are not people.
My own thoughts are that there is a huge difference between a 60-100 pound apex predator like the ray with a lifespan of 13 or so years, and that of fire ants and cockroaches.
Ok, how about rats? Beavers? Deer? Hogs? Because to the people who's living depends on their crops (I'm in farm country), those are just big roaches when they are destroying thousands of dollars worth of crops. It's stupid IMO, but there's a law here where you can shoot deer out of season if they are damaging your crop, but you aren't allowed to touch them and nobody comes out to get them. Hogs can destroy a good sized field over night, but a big boar hog is just plain nasty. They stink, and the meat tastes like it smells. My dad raised hogs for years, and no slaughter house would consider taking a boar...they don't even make good sausage. Can't blame a farmer, or any land owner for that matter, for shooting them. Point being, perspectives are different. Farmers don't think twice about shooting deer or hogs in their fields, and they can't just drop everything to butcher it even if it were practical or legal. There's been state bounties on beaver tails, and I've heard of people trying to eat them. I'll pass. Groundhog is supposed to be edible. If I see one in my pasture, it's toast, since I have a mule and my brother has cattle and we don't want either one to get a broken leg, but they don't look or smell all that appetizing to me. Perspective.
I'm not going to come up to MD and call someone a slob or chastise them because they don't do things like we do back home.
Again, I appreciate the recipes and will try again, even though I've yet to find any of the locals that will eat them. The mother of the guide I go with had a seafood restaurant and he's got a recipe that makes mullet delicious...but nothing for rays. I'm thinking it's a difference in the water temps, or maybe the type of ray? I'll give it another whirl...but either way I'm not giving up bow fishing for them.
Topic: Stingray! Finally (Read 3081 times)
