Hello from Heather and Abby! Today we went clam digging as a volunteer project for Alaska Fish & Game. They are in the process of collecting clams from various beaches to monitor clam harvest. We assisted them by clam digging at Ninilchik beach. We began by suiting up in chest waders, boots, and rubber gloves. Then it was time to get muddy...really, really muddy! We trudged through 6 inches of silt laden mud that engulfed our feet making it nearly impossible to walk. In times we got stuck and/or fell, leaving some in need of assistance to get out.
After a few minutes we were used to the mud and just plopped on our knees to begin digging. We looked for dimples in the sand, marked the location of the clam by sticking a wooden dowel in the dimple, and began quickly digging to one side of the wooden dowel. Finding the clams was tricky as they "ran away" through the mud as we dug after them...it became a race against the clams! We were surprised at how fast they could move. Even more challenging than getting the clam, was recovering the clam without breaking the shell. For the study, the clam shells needed to be intact. Regardless of their condition, we kept every clam we dug up. The people that dug from the tide going out to the tide coming back in were clam digging for about 4 hours. We could not feel our hands or use them by the end of it because they were sopping wet and freezing cold.
Now we had to clean and process the clams. We heated a large pan of water in which the clams were drop into in order to cause them to open their shells. Next the visceral mass (clam meat) was removed from the shell and put into another bucket of water to clean and cut out the icky parts. All the intact shells were bagged and given to AK F&G for their study. We bagged the clam meat into other bags to bring back to the cabins and cook for dinner.
The day was definitely a new experience and super tiring! Some of us did not enjoy the dig, while others had fun; however, all of us agree that it was a wonderful experience to have and a memory that will last forever! Farewell and we will remember to blog tomorrow, so stay tuned. :D