April 9, 2018 — The harvest of soft-shell clams is dwindling along the coast of New England, where the shellfish are embedded in the culture as much as the tidal muck.
Soft-shell clams, also called “steamers” or “longnecks,” are one of the northeastern U.S.’s most beloved seafood items, delighting shoreside diners in fried clam rolls, clam strips and clam chowders. But the nationwide harvest fell to a little less than 2.8 million pounds of meat in 2016, the lowest total since 2000, and there are new signs of decline in Maine.
The Pine Tree State produces more of the clams than any other, and state regulators there said clam harvesters collected a little more than 1.4 million pounds of the shellfish last year. That’s the lowest total since 1930, and less than half a typical haul in the early- and mid-1980s.
The clam fishery is coping with a declining number of fishermen, a warming ocean, harmful algal blooms in the marine environment and growing populations of predator species, said regulators and scientists who study the fishery. It leaves clammers like Chad Coffin of Freeport, Maine, concerned the harvest will decline to the point it will be difficult to make a living.
Read the full story at the Concord Monitor