Digging Clams & Shucking Oysters
I still remember the first time a friend took me to a saltwater beach in search of clams and oysters.
What a marvelous experience it was. Since I grew up in Michigan, pursuing saltwater seafood was a new experience for me.
Even the smell of saltwater seemed to have new and pleasant aroma. Small crabs would scamper away as I overturned rocks. Exciting strange new creatures seemed to be everywhere. My first outing was more than just harvesting shellfish, it was discovery of this new world of salt water.
My friend had prepared me well for the outing making sure that I had a shellfish license, oyster knife, shovel, bucket and boots. He had done all the appropriate homework for our trip, making sure the tide was low enough to expose the shellfish and that the beach was safe to harvest. We arrived a full hour before the noted low tide to allow plenty of time to harvest.
The oysters were easy to spot as they had grown into a large mass of shells with a variety of sizes.
Shucking oysters was our first duty and I was shown the technique of inserting my oyster knife in the opening where the two halves of the oyster come together and twisting until the shell began to come apart. Once there was a partial opening, I would twist the knife slightly attempting to sever the muscle where the oyster was opening and closing its shell. When the muscle was cut, it was easy to scoop the oyster away from the shell into my small container. I harvested a variety of sizes just to see what I thought of the taste of each. Small to medium eventually became my harvesting choice and I avoided oysters that had any milky spawn in them. After a few stabs into my hand with the oyster knife, I learned to start shucking the oyster while it was still on the ground. Once I collected my eighteen-oyster limit, it was digging clam time.
Digging turned out to be quite productive on this beach. Using a full-size garden fork, I dug roughly one foot deep and turned over the sandy material. Almost every scoop had one or two clams in it although some were too small to keep. 1-1/2” was our minimum legal-size limit. My bucket was partially filled with water and then clams were added to allow them to spit sand out while in the bucket. This beach had decent size clams. My 40 clams eventually weighted in at 8 pounds, two pounds less than the weight limit. We even spotted several mussels growing on the clams and harvested some of the larger ones. Eventually I accumulated perhaps one pound of mussels for tasting.
They passed my taste test.
Once everyone had their limits of clams and oysters, we began to hike back to the car.
Since we had a long walk ahead, I dumped most of the clam water and then refilled the bucket just before reaching the car. A WDFW agent met us at the parking lot and verified that we only had taken our limits. We rinsed the mud off our boots, loaded our saltwater haul into the back and headed for home, smiling and happy. We ate our oysters that night as we let the clams continue to cleanse themselves in saltwater overnight.
That first outing was over fifty years ago. I still remember it fondly and have returned many times since. Perhaps the best lesson I learned from my experience, was to make an effort to take someone new to harvesting with me.
