Harvesting For Food
Appreciated by pre-contact local Native Americans for their size, abundance, and relatively easy capture, they are less sought today than geoducks, which have gained a marketing cachet.
Identification is important. Best recipes vary with species. For resource sustainability, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife sets size and bag limits for these clams. The Department of Health sometimes closes beaches for public health and safety. The Department of Health Marine Biotoxin web site has current information.
King County has a well-illustrated clam identification procedure .
Some clammers find horse clams are not as tasty as others, so it's not unusual during clamming season to find horse clams left behind on the beach. The shells are more fragile than they might appear, so it is critical that they not be damaged when first digging if they are not kept. The clams will soon die if abandoned. The adults are unable to rebury themselves—they need the pressure of their surroundings to remain intact and maneuver. They can't hold their two big valves together, protecting their soft tissues. Responsible diggers carefully rebury them to about the depth at which the clams were found.
Read more about this topic: Tresus Capax
Famous quotes containing the words for food and/or food:
“Any day, any minute we bless God for our being or for anything, for food, for sunlight, we do and are what we were meant for, made for—things that give and mean to give God glory.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
“The office of the prince and that of the writer are defined and assigned as follows: the nobleman gives rank to the written work, the writer provides food for the prince.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)