December 1966 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



33 



FEATURES 



HARD-CLAM EXPLORATIONS OFF SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 



By Robert Cummins, Jr.* 



Hard clams are distributed from New England along the Atlan- 

 tic coast to Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico. They long have been 

 the basis of a commercial fishery in New England and along the niid- 

 dle Atlantic States. BCF explorations have resulted in the develop- 

 ment of a small, offshore, hard-clam fishery which has expanded pro- 

 duction in North Carolina. This article gives the latest statistics on 

 the total fishery, exploratory dredging results from North Carolina 

 to Florida, and a de s c r ipt i o n of the new North Carolina fishery. 



Hard clams ( Mercenaria mercenaria and M. 

 campechiensis ) constitute an important fish- 

 ery resource of the Eastern tjnited States 

 (table 1). They occur in waters of every 

 Atlantic state from Maine to Florida and into 

 the Gulf of Mexico; however, most hard -clam 

 production occurs in southern New England 

 and theMiddle Atlantic States (table 2). Little 

 or no commercial productionhasbeenrecord- 

 ed from the Florida east coast, Georgia, South 

 Carolina, Pennsylvania, or New Hampshire. 

 Intermittent fisheries have occurred along the 

 Florida west coasti' and in southern Maine. 



Table 1 - Annual United States Production of 

 Hard-Clam Meats, 1949-631/ 



Year Quantity-' 



1949 18,856 



1950 21,049 



1951 20,801 



1952 17,573 



1953 16,976 



1954 13,519 



1955 14,385 



1956 14,693 



1957 14,767 



1958 14,280 



1959 13,553 



1960 14,877 



1961 14,604 



1962 13,295 



1963 14,529 



1964 14,925 



J^/Data taken £rom Fisheries Statistics of tfie United States. 

 2 /Thousands of pounds. 



Published catch statistics date back to 1879 

 for New England and 1880 for the Middle and 

 South Atlantic States. More recently. Tiller, 

 Glude, and Stringer (1952) gave a comprehen- 

 sive report of the Atlantic Coast fishery from 



'■thief. Exploratory Fishing and Gear Research Station, BCF, St. Simons Island, Georgia. 

 ^Carpenter, James S. (MS), History of Scallop and Clam Explorations in the Gulf of Mexico 



1931 to 1948. Since 1949, New England andthe 

 Middle Atlantic States have continued as the 

 major hard -clam producing areas of the east- 

 ern United States. During this period little 

 change has taken place in c apt u r i ng gear, 

 marketing structure, or processing proce- 

 dures. Ge ner al refinements in the fishery, 

 however, have resulted from recent develop- 

 ments in sanitation, pollution abatement, cul- 

 ture of seed clams, and the production of can- 

 ned products such as chowder. 



Prior to 1959, little was known of the abun- 

 dance or availability of hard clams offshore 

 south ofthe Middle Atlantic States. "Offshore" 

 is the open ocean, in water deeper than 2 or 3 

 fathoms, outside the existing inshore fishery. 

 As part of a resource assessment program, 

 BCF began clam dredging in 1959 with the 

 chartered exploratory fishing vessel Silver 

 Bay to determine the commercial potential of 

 hard-clam stocks from North Carolina to 

 Florida. This report summarizes the results. 



HARD CLAM EXPLORATIONS 



During 7 cruises, from November 1959 to 

 March 1961, the Silver Bay dredged at 271 

 stations. The explorations were made along 

 the coast from north of Cape Hatteras to south 

 of Cape Kennedy, Fla. (fig. 1). Most drags 

 were confined to the 4- to 8 -fathom depth 

 range. Preliminary results were summarized 

 in reports of the Silver Bay cruises (BCF, 

 1960a, 1960b, 1960c, 1960d, 1961a, 1961b, and 

 1961c) and by Cummins, Rivers, Struhsaker 

 (1962). 



U. S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

 Fish and Wildlife Service 

 Sep. No. 776 



