Table 31. --Estimated comiercial landings of hard clan in the north 

 and middle Atlantic regions of the United States coast 1960-1975. 

 Weights of meats in metric tons. 



Year 



North Atlantic region 

 Me-NY incl. m only 



Middle Atlantic region 

 MJ-dC incl. NJ only 



1960 

 1961 

 1962 

 1963 

 1964 

 1965 

 1966 

 1967 

 1968 

 1969 

 1970 

 1971 

 1972 

 1973 

 1974 

 1975 



4.052(2B.773) 

 4.060(28.970) 

 3,882(27. 559) 

 4,217(29.943) 

 4,083(28,992) 

 4.161(29.545) 

 4.424(31,411) 

 4,520(32,092) 

 4,353(30,908) 

 4,635(32,908) 

 4,778(33,922) 

 5,023(35,661) 

 4,435(31,489) 

 3,858(27,389) 

 4,081 (28,975) 

 4,450(31,595) 



1,763(12,520) 

 1,946(13,819) 

 2,194(15,578) 

 2,409(17,103) 

 2,451(17,401) 

 2,698(19,153) 

 2,985(21,196) 

 3,205(22,757) 

 3,169(22,501) 

 3,409(24,204) 

 3.586(25.460) 

 3.878(27,531) 

 3.856(27,375) 

 3,287(23,338) 

 3,642(25,856) 

 3,932(27,914) 



2.405(17,075) 

 2,303(16,351) 

 1,831(13,003) 

 2,160(15,336) 

 2,428(17,238) 

 2,394(15,997) 

 2,361(16,762) 

 2,510(17,819) 

 2,391(16,975) 

 2,426(17,224) 

 2,188(15,535) 

 2,262(16.060) 

 1.852(13,151) 

 1,699(12,059) 

 1,641(11.651) 

 1.384( 9,828) 



1,158(8,222) 



765(5.434) 



607(4.313) 



718(5,101) 



859(6,101) 



849(6,030) 



1,213(6,611) 



1,306(9.272) 



1.158(8,222) 



1.027(7,293) 



1,169(8,300) 



1,112(7.895) 



996(7,073) 



859(6.101) 



790(5.609) 



735(5.218) 



The national saltwater angling surveys for 1960. 1965. and 1970 did 

 not include recreational catches of invertebrates. Recreational 

 catches of hard clam probably are substantial. 



Live weights are given in parentheses for comparability with ICNAF 

 statistics. 



the bays of the outer coast. In the early days, Raritan and 

 Sandy Hook bays were important clamming grounds, 

 but the entire area is now closed for shellfish harvesting 

 except in Sandy Hook Bay and adjacent waters, where a 

 special permit is needed. Since 1900, landings in New 

 Jersey have been roughly half the volume produced in 

 New York. In 1975 New Jersey produced only 735 metric 

 tons of meats compared with 3,932 metric tons in New 

 York. 



Although both states, or local communities in these 

 states, have sponsored programs to transplant clams 

 from polluted to clean waters, management of the hard 

 clam resource has been primarily negative management. 

 That is, waters over shellfish beds are monitored to 

 assess water quality, and grounds are closed when fecal 

 coliform counts reach certain levels. There is reason to 

 believe that commercial landings are underestimated, 

 and in both states there are substantial unrecorded 

 recreational and subsistence clam fisheries. Programs to 

 assess the magnitude of standing crops, recruitment, and 

 removals by natural mortality and harvesting are badly 

 needed. Clams and other nonmigratory resources should 

 be considered the most valuable living marine resources 

 of a state because management of such resources does 

 not require cooperation from adjacent states or other 

 nations. If the state or local community desires to main- 

 tain the resource in healthy condition and to manage the 

 harvest for maximum yield, it has the power to do so. 

 This is not possible with migratory resources. Therefore, 

 if management of living marine coastal resources is to 

 succeed, coastal states like New Jersey and New York 

 should demonstrate their good intentions, and establish 

 model fishery management programs, by concentrating 

 first on their valuable estuarine shellfish resources. The 



Town of Islip on Long Island, which shares with the State 

 of New York control over some 22,000 acres of bottom in 

 Great South Bay, recently has started such a research 

 and management program. A cooperative program with 

 adjacent towns also is under consideration. Several other 

 towns on Long Island have shellfish management 

 programs in various stages of development. 



In Great South Bay, N.Y., and possibly also in the 

 coastal bays of New Jersey, recent increases in abun- 

 dance of blue crab may have reduced the supply of hard 

 clam. Crabs, especially blue crab, are serious predators 

 of clams, and this may account for indications of reduced 

 recruitment of young clams in the past few years. 



Soft Clam 



In the 1880s soft clam, Mya arenaria Linnaeus, was 

 abundant in most bays of the New Jersey coast and 

 around Long Island (Earll 1887; Mather 1887). From past 

 experience it was recognized that the resource was highly 

 variable in abundance, as it is today. Except for the 

 period prior to the beginning of the 20th century, trends 

 in soft clam landings in New Jersey have been generally 

 similar to those in New York except for 1947 and 1948, 

 when landings rose sharply in New Jersey (Fig. 30). From 

 a level below 100 metric tons of meats per year in the ear- 

 ly part of the century landings rose in the 1930s and 

 remained relatively high until the late 1940s, then 

 dropped abuptly and have fluctuated about a very low 

 level ever since (Table 32). In the 1930s and 1940s land- 

 ings in both states rose well above the levels of the 

 1920s, then fell off in the 1950s to even lower levels. 



New England has traditionally been the major producer 

 of soft clam, but production there fell off after 1940 and 

 this stimulated production in states farther south. 

 However, neither in New Jersey nor New York have Itmd- 

 ings reached levels comparable to Maryland, where the 

 fishery began in the 1950s, probably because Maryland 

 has a much greater area of bottom suitable for this 

 species, and also because Maryland allows more ef- 

 ficient harvesting methods. In face of the reduced supply 

 in New England and continued demand for soft clam it is 

 likely that continued attrition will hold the resouce in the 

 New York Bight area at a relatively low level of abun- 

 dance. Although there is no positive evidence one way or 

 the other, it is possible that the resource has been over- 



--Y- 



Figure .10.— Annual commercial landings of soft clam in New Jersey 



1880-1975. 



32 



