the area if given a chance to spawn." 



"Another theory," Porter continues, 

 "is that our calico scallop beds come 

 up from Florida. The juvenile scallops 

 may be spawned off the Florida coast 

 and brought up to our waters by the 

 Gulf Stream. For some reason, they 

 are dropped out as juveniles here." 



The calico scallop beds have been 

 known for years by fishermen, ac- 

 cording to Porter. "Years ago," he ex- 

 plains, "they would occasionally bring 

 in some. But, it's only been recently 

 that we have had automatic shucking 

 machines for calico scallops. Up until 

 the advent of these machines, all 

 scallops had to be shucked by hand." 



The process patent for the first 



scallop shucking machine in the state 

 was held by Elmer Willis, a Carteret 

 County seafood processor. In the mid- 

 60's, Willis refined the process for the 

 scallop industry. When the calico 

 scallops are sent through the machine, 

 the first step involves a steam treat- 

 ment which opens the shells slightly. 

 Then, the shells are agitated 

 vigorously, causing the muscle and 

 viscera to fall out. This part of the 

 scallop then goes through a series of 

 rollers that separate the viscera from 

 the muscle, the part actually eaten. 



"There are five to seven shucking 

 machines in the area," Tyler says, 

 "primarily in Carteret County with 

 some in Onslow. Many were running 



twenty-four hours a day, and I've been 

 told they can produce something like 

 one hundred to one hundred and fif- 

 teen gallons an hour. There are still 

 some people Down East actually hand 

 shucking them because you do get 

 more meat. The machine does have a 

 little bit of waste," he says. 



In spite of its unpredictable nature 

 and limited supplies, the calico scallop 

 is still a popular catch for both fisher- 

 men and seafood processors in North 

 Carolina. Years between harvests 

 doesn't dull the enthusiasm and 

 eagerness generated when a season is 

 finally announced. And, it just may be 

 another eight years before they return 

 to this traditional bed to set. 



Reading a clam's life in the rings of its shell 



Photo by Ca 



To determine the age of a tree, you 

 count the number of rings in a cross 

 section of the trunk. For each growth 

 period, a ring is added — a thick one for 

 a healthy year and a thin one for leaner 

 times. The rings reveal the tree's life 

 history and the environmental forces it 

 faced. This information can be used in 

 forest management. Using a similar 

 technique, a Sea Grant researcher is 

 recording the life histories of hard 

 clams. 



By studying cross sections, Charles 

 H. Peterson has been discovering cer- 

 tain data that can be used in the 

 management of hard clam resources in 

 North Carolina. The harvest of hard 

 clams in North Carolina has increased 

 dramatically in just the last couple of 

 years. Commercial landings of clam 

 meats jumped from 892,000 pounds in 

 1978 to 1,455,000 pounds in 1979. De- 

 mand for seafood is part of the reason, 

 but new means of mechanical har- 

 vesting, such as clam kicking, have 

 made deep-water and older beds more 

 accessible to the clammer. 



"It has really become imperative," 

 Peterson says, "to address whether we 

 need to worry about managing the 

 stocks and whether we will be able to 

 continue the level of harvest we are 

 currently applying to the population." 



With Sea Grant support, Peterson, 

 an associate professor at the UNC In- 

 stitute of Marine Sciences in 

 Morehead City, has been studying the 

 hard clam in Carteret County for over 

 two years. To find an aging technique, 



Charles Peterson checking on young clams in the lab 



he and his assistants marked clams 

 that were placed under natural condi- 

 tions and measured them periodically. 

 In the first years of study, approx- 

 imately 80 percent of the clams dis- 

 played a common new growth line. 

 Last year, when the clams were ex- 

 amined again, another new growth line 

 had been added. 



Hard clams, like all mollusks, grow 

 by producing more shell. Calcium car- 

 bonate is secreted in the glands of the 

 mantle and laid down periodically as 

 the clam grows. Also, organic materials 

 of different hardnesses are added to 

 the shell during the growth cycle. 

 When Peterson etches his shell cross 

 sections with acid, the areas rich in 



