Want to test your commitment to saving the bay? Eat a nutria. Eat a big, fat marsh rat. Lay off the crabs. Don't even look at Chesapeake oysters - if you can find them - and chow down on a dish of nutria, the 15-pound cousin of the muskrat. That's the message from the Maryland Conservation Council. You won't see crabs (except in the soup) at its annual crab feast tomorrow at Mayo Beach, south of Annapolis. Instead, you'll see Nick "Mad Dog" Carter serving nutria (head, feet and buckteeth removed).
Quick, before you gag, some background: Nutrias are root-eating rodents. Their numbers are growing throughout the Chesapeake, and they're gobbling up precious wetlands. The value of their pelts has fallen to virtually nothing; the only market left is the meat market. That's where Nick Carter comes in. A biologist with the Department of Natural Resources, he's been trying to get the public to try nutria. And save the bay! Carter stewed some nutria for taste-testers last winter. "Definitely better than muskrat," reported Sun columnist Tom Horton. "Fine texture, light in color, not greasy at all." Look for Carter and Horton at tomorrow's feast. (Vegetarian dishes, barbecued chicken and nutria-less desserts also will be offered.) The save-the-crab fest runs from noon 'til 5. For information, call 448-2362. Et bon appetit.
