Extended Clams
A hard-shelled
reset
How the return of the clam could help our water crisis
By Marcy Shortuse
Photos by Matthew Gutman
In the last few decades, the way people
who live on the water make money
has changed dramatically. Commercial
net bans, more red tide blooms, waning
populations in our fi sheries and many other
factors have been hard on the generations
of Gulf Coast families who made their
living from the water. In fact, there are some
occupations that many people in our new
generations aren’t even aware existed.
Clamming is one of them, and this
bivalves disappearance from local waters is
much more unfortunate than most people
realize.
Bivalve shellfi sh are natural fi lters of
water, and clams have the ability to absorb
pollutants, bacteria and viruses in polluted
waters; high densities of native clams
can reduce harmful algae through the
consumption of Karenia brevis, the algae
producing Florida red tide. Thriving oyster
beds can produce the same results, but
the lifespan of a native clam is much longer
than that of a native oyster. That means that
restoring our indigenous clam population
could certainly provide benefi ts for local
waters for a longer period of time.
44 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • November/December • 2021