PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – Chad Coffin has gone through the coronavirus pandemic just like previous decades: in the marshes of Maine, looking for clams that attract tourists to New England’s seafood huts.
But it has a problem: few clams.
“There just aren’t the clams there were before,” Coffin said. “I don’t want to be negative, I just try to be realistic.”
It is a family problem experienced by New England clamdiggers. Over the past year, there are more Anglophones who have dug into the tidal mothers, but the clams do not cooperate.
The coronavirus pandemic has inspired more people in the northeastern states, particularly Maine and Massachusetts, to dig for soft-shell clams, which are also called “vapors” and are used to generate fried clams. fried for generations. The era of social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic is conducive to often lonely work, said Coffin, president of the Maine Clammers Association, which represents commercial clammers.
But the U.S. clam trajectory has plummeted in recent years as the industry has struggled with predators that eat clams and warm waters, and 2020 and early 2021 have been especially difficult, members of the clam said. industry.
In Maine, the largest clam-producing state, fishermen produced their lowest transport in more than 90 years with just over £ 1.3 million in 2020. Totals across the country are still unaccounted for. they compile, but Maine transportation usually accounts for more than half of the U.S. total, and drags in other claim states like Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York have been on the decline in recent years.
The lack of clams has contributed to rising prices for consumers, Coffin said. It has also sparked fears that future generations of clams will be even smaller, he said.
“Some of the guys who claim make money now, but they basically sell their future,” Coffin said. “The resource continues to dwindle.”
The clam industry has had to fight marine clam predators such as green crabs and milky ribbon worm in recent years. Scientists have said predators have been encouraged by waters that heat key habitats such as the Gulf of Maine, which is one of the fastest warming bodies of water in the world.
The deficit of clams has coincided with a time of high demand for clams and has served to raise prices. Soft-shelled clams often sell for around $ 7 per pound at retail, which is about 40 percent more than normal and a surprisingly high number for spring, Coffin said. Demand for clams is usually highest in the summer.
Soft-shelled clams were the second most valuable species, after locusts, in Maine last year, according to state records. The clams were worth about $ 15.7 million at the docks, a competitive total in recent years and $ 2.39 per pound, which was the second-highest figure in recorded history.
Prices are rising due to factors such as interest in local food during the pandemic and limited supply of clams to the market, said Brian Beal, a professor of marine ecology at the University of Maine, in Machias, whose research is focuses on seafood. The price hike is nice in the short term for clam catchers, but long-term problems are a major threat to fishing, he said.
“It’s interesting that the demand for soft-skinned clams is still there, and that demand is increasing that price, and that’s driving people to go and collect clams,” Beal said. “We still have to look at historical trends. One way of looking at it is that they were the lowest in a long time ”.
Lack of clams has been a problem for commercial and recreational clams. Predatory crabs, which originated in Europe, are also a problem for lovers of Cape Cod fans, said John Townes, president of the Barnstable Association for Recreational Shellfishing.
“They’re a horribly invasive species,” he said. “They are large predators.”