Eelgrass: A Traditional Comcaac (Seri) Seafood and a Revolutionary Source of Grain

Eelgrass: A Traditional Comcaac (Seri) Seafood and a Revolutionary Source of Grain David Burckhalter (bio) Eelgrass (Zostera marina), also called sea wrack, zacate del mar or trigo del mar (wheat of the sea), is a fully submerged flowering seagrass found across the Northern Hemisphere from subtropical to subpolar zones of North America and in parts of Europe and Asia. Eelgrass thrives along the Pacific Ocean coasts from Sinaloa, Mexico, into the Gulf of California, along the Baja California peninsula past Los Angeles and 3,000 miles north up the coast to Alaska. Eelgrass occurs on the Atlantic Ocean coasts of the northeast United States and Canada around to Hudson Bay. Eelgrass grows along coastal Europe from the North Sea and Baltic Sea around Scandinavia, south down the Atlantic coastline to Spain, and around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. By the Asian continent, eelgrass proliferates only in the Far East along the coasts of Japan, Korea, and northern China. The Comcaac or Seri Indians of Sonora, Mexico, once nomadic hunter-gatherer-fishers, a non-agricultural people who now live in the fishing villages of Punta Chueca (Socaaix) and Desemboque (Haxöl Iihom) on the east coast of the Sea of Cortés (Gulf of California), were the only people in the world known to consume the fruits/seeds of eelgrass. For Seris of the past eelgrass was an important plant harvested for its edible seed during the month of April. Seris call the April moon xnoois ihaat iizax, meaning "moon of the eelgrass seed." In Seri country eelgrass flourishes along coastal shallows where ribbon-like [End Page 369] plants rooted in the sandy sea floor thrive in dense underwater meadows. Eelgrass meadows of 6-foot-high plants provide places especially for sea turtles to graze and hide, turtles once being an important year-round Seri food source. Seris call the rooted eelgrass plant in its mature state hatám, meaning "what is harvested." In Seriland eelgrass is a winter-growth annual (eelgrass is a perennial over most of its range) with unisexual flowers on the same plants that send out seed-bearing shoots after flowering. Pollination of the 100% reproductive shoots in the Seri marine is accomplished by sea currents. When the eelgrass plants and shoots containing the seeds break free from the sea floor with the warming temperatures of spring, they float to the surface en masse and drift ashore. Seris name the seed-bearing eelgrass shoots that float to shore eaz, while they call the edible eelgrass seeds lying within the shoots xnoois. Eelgrass beds thrive along coastal Seriland, especially within the unique ecosystem created by the Infiernillo Strait, the 15-mile-long, 2- to 4-mile-wide shallow channel that lies between the Sonora mainland and the east side of Tiburón Island (Mexico's largest island, with 464 square miles of desert and mountain terrain). Eelgrass also grows along the north and south coasts of Tiburón Island, but not in the turbulent waters of the wind-swept west coast, and not around San Esteban Island. Eelgrass occurs offshore by the Seri fishing village of Punta Chueca, southward to Bahía Kino and Guaymas, and as far south as Sinaloa. Eelgrass once proliferated farther north up the coast by the Seri village of Desemboque. To Seri foragers of yore, the April moon meant good weather, plentiful food, and socializing. Seri families gathered at campsites on either side of the Infiernillo Strait to splash in the sea while pulling in the floating seed-bearing eelgrass shoots, spreading them out to dry on the beaches. Then began stick-threshing the shoots on deerskins or blankets in order to collect the released seeds. It took a double winnowing to clean the seeds, each seed still covered by a thin capsule or utricle. The utricles had to be broken open and separated from the seeds. Eelgrass flour was made by grinding the seeds on a metate and then winnowing a third time to separate the chaff. The flour was readied as is or toasted in a ceramic bowl, then cooked in fresh water, often mixed with sea turtle oil, honey, and sometimes with crushed cardón cactus seeds. The special...