If you're a seafood lover and you're willing to work for it, harvesting clams can be a rewarding activity that's easily done on the cheap.
Digging for these delicious bivalve mollusks doesn't require much equipment. For one, all you really need is your hands or a clam rake to poke around in the sand. Dump your findings in a bucket, get home and cook.
And unlike oyster harvesting, you can dig for clams any time of the year.
But while the act of clamming can be considered pretty easy, there's some preparation and research involved. To learn about bag and size limits and what tastes good, about 20 people attended an introductory clamming class at
Canaveral National Seashore near
New Smyrna Beach.
"Clamming 101" began along the shore of Mosquito Lagoon on a windy, 50-degree morning. The group braved the cold water with volunteer instructors Walt Greis and Bill Herridge.
"I'll start out first by saying clamming is fishing," said Herridge, who has been leading the interpretive program for about 15 years. "Harvesting any animal out of the water out here constitutes fishing, and as such, I have to tell you that adults certainly require a license."
Tips and Rules to Remember
- Clams must be at least an inch wide at the hinge for harvest.
- If the clam is too small, don't chuck it over your shoulder. Make a thumbhole in the mud and drop it back in to give it a better chance at survival.
- Use a clam rake from a fishing or outdoors store (costs about $12 to $20). Garden rakes can be used, but the teeth must be at least an inch apart.
- If you're trolling the shoreline on foot, harvesting limits clam diggers to one 5-gallon bucket per person per day.
- One person on a boat may take one 5-gallon pail. Two or more people onboard a boat may only take two 5-gallon buckets per day per boat, regardless of the number of people on board.
- If you're going to be using a rake, be sure to avoid destroying sea grass beds, which provide habitat and food sources for lagoon animals.
- Wear closed-toe shoes or water booties.
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Prices vary depending on use, but Florida residents pay about $17 for a standard annual saltwater license; nonresidents are charged $17 for a 3-day saltwater license.
Once you've got the paperwork out of the way, make sure you're going to a safe shellfish harvesting area by checking with the state Division of Aquaculture.
At Canaveral National Seashore, visitors can check with the ranger's station and get a map of approved harvesting areas that haven't been affected by runoff or treated sewage.
The most common type of bivalve you'll harvest in the Canaveral area is the hard shell clam.
Since you're going to get wet, the best time to go clamming is at low tide --that way you can avoid getting all the way in the water. Although the cold water might not be enticing right now, it's clear enough to sometimes spy "keyholes," small holes created by the bivalves that resemble tiny volcanoes pumping out water.
To be efficient, Geis suggests facing the shoreline as you rake the bottom from one side to the other. "It's not a difficult technique, get your tongs down two to three inches in the sand or mud."
If you've got something, you should hear the rake hit the shell. Use your hands to dig into the sand and see what you've got. To be sure the clam is alive, hit two clam shells together. "If it sounds like a cue ball, that's good," Geis said. "They're both alive."
Like fishing, you never know how a clam day will end up. Sometimes it's just a bad spot. "That's why they call it fishing instead of catching," Herridge said.
Taking a shot at it during the clam class, Dorothy Whitehurst only surfaced from the lagoon with one bivalve.
"It will make a nice little snack," quipped Whitehurst, a West Virginia resident staying in New Smyrna Beach. "I'll put it on a cracker."
John Nedza, on vacation from Canada, was the one student to come up with the mother lode -- about a 10 clams in 30 minutes.
To get them ready to eat, Geis and Herridge advise one final step. Avoid getting sand and grit in your teeth by letting the clams sit in a mixture of one-third cup of table salt to 1 gallon of water for about four hours. The bivalves will pump the water and purge themselves of mud, muck and sand. Herridge said adding a pinch of cornmeal to the mix will make the clams pump the water faster.