to be heavily encrusted. This explains partly the surprisingly small numbers 

 of encrusting organisms in many fossil communities. Durability of M. 

 meroenaria and other similar bivalves during the 1st few yrs after death is 

 of the order of 150 times as great in muddy, low-energy sublittoral 

 environments as in the surf zone on a fine sand beach, and 1,000 times as 

 great as in the surf zone of a gravelly sand beach. - from author's 

 conclusions - J.L.M. 



517 



Driscoll, Egbert G., and Ruth A. Swanson. 1973. 



Diversity and structure of epifaunal communities on mollusc valves. Buzzards 

 Bay, Massachusetts. Palaeogeogr . , Palaeoclimatol . , Palaeoecol. 14(3): 

 229-247. 



Meroenaria meroenaria shells were placed on each of 3 different sediment 

 types: coarse, poorly sorted, shell-rich sand; very fine sand with large 

 silt-clay fraction; and medium sand; in Buzzards Bay, Mass. for 1 year. 

 Study of epifauna after recovery led to the following conclusions: 1) fossil 

 epifaunas probably provide more reliable information on common species than 

 on rare species; 2) sedimentary substrate is not a direct cause of 

 homogeneity of epifaunas; 3) diversity is overestimated by the rarefaction 

 method of analysis; 4) epifaunas associated with shell substrates deviate 

 from the MacArthur "broken stick" model in such a way that rare species are 

 rarer than predicted and common species more abundant; and 5) living 

 epifaunal communities associated with shell substrates demonstrate a 

 moderately good fit with the Preston truncated lognormal model of dis- 

 tribution of individuals within species. - from authors' conclusions - J.L.M. 



518 



Duffy, Francis James. 1980. 



Clam-cleansing plant helps restore once-active Staten Island fishery. Natl. 

 Fisherman 60(9): 52-53. 



Staten Island once had a thriving shellfish industry, but growing pollution 

 closed first the oyster beds and then the clamming areas in 1920. The fish- 

 ery was reopened in 1940, but the U.S. Public Health Service found it neces- 

 sary to close the clam beds again in 1961. A limited fishery was opened 

 again in 1979 when William Ryan of the Great Kills Shellfish Corp. opened a 

 depuration plant at Great Kills. Clammers operate under special permit for 

 delivery to the plant. The future of clamming [Meroenaria meroenaria) in 

 the area appears promising. - J.L.M. 



519 



Duffy, McFadden. 1977. 



Louisiana clams ... A new fishery? Louisiana Conservationist May-June 1977: 

 11-15. 



The article deals primarily with the southern hard clam, Meroenaria 

 oampeohiensis . They apparently inhabit the ecological niche outside the 

 one inhabited by oysters. They occupy a band along the entire Louisiana 

 coast. In most cases they are roughly about six inches below the surface 

 of the bottom, but can move vertically and slightly horizontally in the 

 sediments. The stock size is not known. Presently they are most useful for 

 making chowder, but can be used for mincing, dicing, or coarsely ground for 

 other uses. In the first three months of 1977 an experimental fishery took 

 over 7,000 bu of clams. The future of the fishery still needs to be proven. 

 - J.L.M. 



144 



