Barry Hurt out
at his lease
discussing the
recent red tide
reports with Ray
Bauer.
He has been studying the effects of red
tide on our waters and economic system for
several years, and he thinks he has come up
with a plan to make a difference. “A Billion
Clams,” or “Project ABC,” has been at the
forefront of Hurt’s focus for quite some time
and believes it could mean the difference
between sustainability and catastrophic
failure for our local waters.
Why clams? Hurt, who
has been coming to Little
Gasparilla Island since 1985
and living there full time
since 2004, has been farming
clams through a lease on
Sandfl y Key since 2001.
Most of the clamming leases
near Gasparilla Island are on
Sandfl y Key, but there is one in
Bull Bay. None of these leases
have been farmable since
December of 2020, due to red
tide.
This is frustrating, because
the native clams could be
a big factor in helping to get our water
healthy again. The ABC Project would create
permanent clam beds protected from
commercial and recreational harvest. The
beds would mature and begin reproducing
on their own, leading to an increase in native
populations over time.
“Restoring large densities of these algae
consuming shellfi sh will provide the fi lter
“Hard clams
are the natural
nitrogen and
carbon collectors
in the water, but
the clam sets
do a lot of other
things.”
– Barry Hurt
46 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • November/December • 2021
to decrease nutrient concentrations in our
estuaries,” he said. “Hard clams are the
natural nitrogen and carbon collectors in
the water, but the clam sets do a lot of other
things. They provide bottom stabilization
and a nursery habitat for new clam growth,
and oyster growth as well. They can provide
stabilization for seagrass beds, for juvenile
fi sh … there’s a lot of benefi ts to the clam set
other than them taking
nitrogen and carbon out of
the water.”
Clams are extremely
effi cient fi lter feeders; a
single clam will fi lter fi ve
gallons of seawater per
day, and they play an
important role in the cycle
of nutrients. One of the
key culprits in the longevity
of a red tide bloom’s life
cycle is its ability to feed
itself. Nitrogen, such as that
which is found in fertilizers
and pesticides, is one of
the alga’s favorite foods. Clams do not absorb
nitrogen directly from their environment,
rather they feed on naturally occurring
phytoplankton, which use dissolved inorganic
nitrogen, available in the water, to grow.
Clams also stimulate the growth of bacteria
that changes the nitrogen in the water,
making it a very inhospitable place for the
algae that is harmful.