April 19, 2021 — Chad Coffin has spent the coronavirus pandemic much as he has the previous several decades: on the mudflats of Maine, digging for the clams that draw tourists to seafood shacks around New England.
But he’s running into a problem: few clams.
“There just isn’t the clams that there used to be,” Coffin said. “I don’t want to be negative, I’m just trying to be realistic.”
It’s a familiar problem experienced by New England’s clamdiggers. More New Englanders have dug in the tidal mudflats during the last year, but the clams aren’t cooperating.
The coronavirus pandemic has inspired more people in the Northeastern states, particularly Maine and Massachusetts, to dig for soft-shell clams, which are also called “steamers” and have been used to make chowder and fried clams for generations. The era of social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic is conducive to the often solitary work, said Coffin, the president of the Maine Clammers Association, which represents commercial clammers.
But the U.S. haul of clams has dipped in recent years as the industry has contended with clam-eating predators and warming waters, and 2020 and early 2021 have been especially difficult, industry members said.