You might wonder why you don’t fi nd many
clams around here anymore, but the answer is
the same as it is everywhere in the United States –
overharvesting.
In the early part of the 1900s Southwest
Florida waters contained some of the largest
beds of hard clams in the United States. When a
company called Doxsee Clamming Corporation
came down to Florida in 1910 and put in a
shucking operation in Marco Island, though,
that all changed: The small fi sherman was once
again put in jeopardy by a large corporation. The
corporation that was founded in Long Island,
New York in 1865 made a good profi t from
clamming in Long Island Sound until 1900, when
a decline in clam stock took place. They moved
their operation fi rst to North Carolina, then down
to Florida. When they ran out of clams around
Marco Island, they worked their way north, and
Charlotte Harbor was a prime spot to rake them
out.
The last “rakers” most people remember in our
area were here in the early 1980s. They took what
was left after the Doxsee Clamming Corporation
came through, some time in the middle of the
1950s early ’60s.
At the time, it was thought that our clam
population would bounce right back. In fact, it
takes a long, long time … maybe hundreds of
years. Most places in the United States that have
experienced this overclamming situation still
don’t know how long it takes, as a “reset” has yet
to occur.
Barry Hurt, a property owner on Little Gasparilla
Island, said it took about 50 years to wipe those
clam beds almost completely out of existence,
because of over-farming and dredging.
November/December • 2021 • GASPARILLA MAGAZINE A No N ve vemb mb m er e /D Dec ec ecem em e be b r 20 2 21 21 GA G SP SPAR ARIL ILLA LAMAG AG A AZ AZIN IN INE A
Barry Hurt (facing page) on his way out to
Charlotte Harbor.