Bounty of the beach: clams

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George the original one
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Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by George the original one »

Continuing to improve my beach lifestyle skills, I finally succeeded in razor clamming today. Oregon also has bay clams, but Seaside is razor clam territory rather than bay clams. Even the small Necanicum estuary here is populated with razor clams, though people only collect them from the beach.

This was my third attempt at razor clamming this winter. First try, I discovered that you need minus tides to get to the clam beds as low tide is not low enough. Second try was an evening minus tide, but conditions were not good and few people were finding clams, so I didn't feel too bad about failing again. First one I got today was classic obvious hole, but the rest were more subtle dimples and I got better at spotting them, collecting 5 in about 45 minutes (mostly in final 15 minutes).

There was certainly time available to dig a limit of 15, but I stopped relatively early as 5 seemed enough for now. Especially as I now needed to learn how to clean & cook them. And now that I have, the beach is my, uhm, clam. More morning minus tides through the weekend and into Tuesday, so I plan on digging my daily limit at least once and freezing the excess.

For the record, 5 deep fried razor clams made for a large & rich lunch.

Gear: fishing waders (already owned for winter fishing), $25+ clam gun or shovel should last 10-20 years, $7 annual Oregon shellfish license (also good for crabbing), bag to keep prizes

Miss Lonelyhearts
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by Miss Lonelyhearts »

Sounds delicious. I've only had them once but they were exceptional. Is the limit 15 per day? And which do you use, gun or shovel? I'm used to seeing my east coast relatives use a rake when searching for cherrystone or littlenecks.

enigmaT120
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by enigmaT120 »

I saw one of those clam digger things yesterday at Goodwill. Since I eat nothing from the marine biome I left it there. We did go to the coast yesterday and brought home some sand and pretty rocks.

George the original one
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by George the original one »

As far as I know, rakes aren't used for any of the 4 clam species in Oregon. You will see them used for collecting dungeness crabs (and I may try that this year). Mussels are just pried off the rocks.

>Is the limit 15 per day? And which do you use, gun or shovel?

15 per day, so the daily limit makes 3-4 meals. I got my limit today in 20-30 minutes, along with a couple hundred other people. There was a line of dug holes for about 2 miles along the beach this morning.

I prefer the gun. Razor clams can dig themselves deeper when they sense trouble. Easily can go down a shovel's depth before you can shovel again. If you miss with a shovel, you end up digging wider in addition to deeper because the hole is collapsing and you're trying not to break the clam's shell, so it's twice the frantic effort. With a clam gun, you plunge in, put thumb over hole for suction, pull up, and dump contents. Didn't go deep enough? Then just re-enter the same hole because razor clams can't move side-to-side.

Judging by what I saw, razor clammers are about 2:1 in favor of the gun. The cheap plastic clam gun I bought works okay, but has a tendency to collapse sidewalls when pulling up maximum sand. The high-end models are stainless steel with a valve that makes it easier to dump the sand. The old fashioned guns are cast aluminum.

The advantage of the shovel is you can use it for bay clams and the handle-end makes a good sand thumper. Stomping your foot works nearly as well for a thumper, though. Saw one lady who had half a shovel handle tied to her clam gun... best of both worlds?

> I saw one of those clam digger things yesterday at Goodwill.

Dang, the Astoria Goodwill had none when I looked a couple months ago.

George the original one
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by George the original one »

Economics

My limit of 15 razor clams, after cleaning, weighed 1 lb. Local retail price for 1 lb of cleaned pacific(*) razor clams is $18.

Therefore 2 daily limits of razor clams is break-even for my new gear & license this year. It will only take half a limit next year to pay for the annual license. And I'm off to the beach in an hour to get my second daily limit...

(*) There's an atlantic razor clam that's just not nearly the same thing.
Last edited by George the original one on Mon Apr 11, 2016 10:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

George the original one
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by George the original one »

Environment

Razor clams are generally considered to be an intertidal species, but their niche goes well below what can be reached even at minus tide. This means that about half the razor clam population are never subjected to clamming pressure and thus the fishery is sustainable. Wildlife management sets daily bag limits to ensure that the casual public can be reasonably assured of digging with success. Harvest quantities fluctuate due to timing of minus tides (this year they're aligning on weekends, so greater harvest), rate of harvest zone repopulation, and harvest closures due to natural toxins.

The primary natural toxin is domoic acid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domoic_acid), poisonous to humans, builds up in razor clams when the ocean is warm and the plankton that turns into domoic acid is more prevalent. Government monitors domoic acid in the razor clam population and closes areas when the level is too high. Thus climate change will increasingly remove harvest opportunities, though it does not harm the razor clam population.

George the original one
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by George the original one »

Cooking Experiments
[will update as I learn]

First batch cooked on Friday were fried the traditional way (flour, egg wash, then panko crumb coating before dropping into the hot oil in a frying pan) and it worked well. I'd read of substituting crushed Ritz crackers for the panko and tried it today. Uh, don't do that if you're frying as the Ritz immediately turn to charcoal. Probably good if you bake the clams and I've seen recipes for baking, but need to read details.

George the original one
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by George the original one »

Regular saltines work well for panko coating. About half a tube of saltines per 5 clams, though it's tricky to get them crushed fine enough without turning them into powder. I've found a spoon in a bowl breaks up the chunks that are too big. For 5 clams: 1/4 cup of flour (or less), one large egg, and the half tube of saltines. Apply seasoning as they come out of the frying pan (most recipes suggest incorporating the seasoning in the flour, but that didn't work well for me). Prep, cooking, eating, and cleanup takes about half hour. Increase by 10 minutes for each extra serving of 5 clams.

I can't tell the difference between frozen and fresh clams, so they're quite suitable for the roundtrip to the freezer. Advice is to not leave them in the freezer for more than 2 months, though.

Riggerjack
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by Riggerjack »

WA coasts tend to be rocky, so, oysters.

We always fill a bucket with salt water, add a bit of corn meal, and let em sit. The oysters will then feed on the corn meal, and purge sand. I assume this works with clams, too?

George the original one
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by George the original one »

What about that 60 mile stretch of sand going north from Long Beach, Washington? (yes, I know you're on the rocky end of WA, so it's not in your backyard)

From what I can find out, putting a limit of razor clams in a bucket of seawater means they'll run out of oxygen in about 4 hours whereas they do perfectly fine outside of water for 12+ hours (preferably chilled). The sand is a minor annoyance with razor clams and easily washes out, but purging the stomach contents is the point of cleaning; even if they purged the contents, you still have some soft gook plus the crystalline style & lungs to remove (lungs are edible, but white man culture removes them).

Papers of Indenture
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by Papers of Indenture »

George the original one wrote:(lungs are edible, but white man culture removes them).
I didn't realize our seafood cleaning practices were unusual until I ate shrimp in Brazil. It was fried so I didn't even realize it was fully intact with shell until i started to chew. Apparently that's the norm in most places.

George the original one
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by George the original one »

New cycle of minus tides began (way too early yesterday, Thurs!), so I collected a modest 10 clams this morning in 20 minutes. This tide cycle lasts through Wed. Am reserving the clam necks for fishing bait as spring salmon season on a nearby river that allows bait is just around the corner.

EdithKeeler
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by EdithKeeler »

I saw this razor claim video a while back--thought it was cute. No digging required.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cq8R09YIr4

George the original one
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Re: Bounty of the beach: clams

Post by George the original one »

LOL, cute... those are Atlantic razor clams, a pale imitation of the Pacific variety. No idea if the harvest method would work here, probably illegal.

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