Dr. Dan KillamWe got #clamfacts over here! 🔔
Come on over to get yer #clamfacts 🔔
Facts about ruthless little clams, peaceful giant clams and all those in-between kinda clams. That's what we got, no more no less.
kdnyhan@dantheclamman I would like #ClamFacts please. Where I grew up, we could collect huge "hen clams" rolling around on top of the mud in water about waist height at the lowest of low tides.
1 Do they live on top of the mud (instead of buried on it) their whole lives?
2 Are hen clams threatened by invasive green crabs like other clams in Maine are?
Thank you!
1 Do they live on top of the mud (instead of buried on it) their whole lives?
2 Are hen clams threatened by invasive green crabs like other clams in Maine are?
Thank you!
@kdnyhan I have heard surf clams (Spisula solidissima) referred to as hen clams!
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/atlantic-surfclam
Those the ones you talking about? They live shallowly buried in the sediment lot of their lives, but may emerge to relocate according to the tides, predation and other stressors. I am not aware of whether surf clams are considered as vulnerable to green crab predation as other species like soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria). #clamfacts
@dantheclamman I've never seen such small ones as in the picture, but the description matches. Yikes, I didn't know I might be eating 35-year-old clams.
Follow-up Q: the surf clams that I harvested and ate, did they probably spend their whole lives in that cove? Or did they move around over the years?
Follow-up Q: the surf clams that I harvested and ate, did they probably spend their whole lives in that cove? Or did they move around over the years?
@kdnyhan they probably were native to that cove. While the ones you ate may have been 35 years old, it's more likely they were younger, since they grow so quickly