Photos by Kathy Hart 



Monroe Willis 



to others in the state who were ex- 

 perimenting with hatcheries, Cape- 

 hart decided to set up a small hatch- 

 ery of his own. 



"As soon as I heard about the idea of 

 clam hatcheries I told myself I had to 

 try it," the young Capehart says. 

 "You've got to be innovative if you're 

 going to stay ahead these days." 



Capehart describes his methods for 

 culturing clams as one of "trial and 

 error." First he collects a breeding 

 stock of clams that are a moderate size 

 and are not blunted or deformed. 

 Capehart places the clams in a tank. 



"I take a few sample clams, bust 

 them open and check their gonads to 

 see if they're ready for spawning 

 around the end of April or the first of 

 May," Capehart says. "If they're 

 ready we quickly raise the temperature 

 in the tank to 78 to 80 degrees to pro- 

 vide thermal shock." 



Thermal shock may cause the clams 

 to spawn. But usually Capehart drops 

 an eyedropper full of milky sperm 

 (taken from the test clams) into the 

 tank. The sperm, as it is drawn 

 through the clams' systems by their 

 pumping action, should induce the 

 male clams to cast their sperm and the 

 females their eggs. But what they 

 should do and what actually happens 

 may not be the same, Capehart says. 



"Sometimes after I drop the sperm 

 in the tank the clams quit pumping," 

 Capehart says. "Sometimes they take 

 it in and don't spawn and sometimes 



Water pours into clam trays 



they just spit it right back out. It's 

 frustrating. They don't spawn on 

 every attempt. I may sit with 'em all 

 day and they'll never spawn." 



But if successful, Capehart may end 

 up with several million fertilized eggs. 

 After collecting the eggs, he takes a 

 one-milliliter sample and examines it 

 under a microscope to determine how 

 many eggs he has. The number of eggs 

 in the sample will establish the amount 

 of water and algae the clams will need 

 to survive and grow. Capehart feeds 

 the clams algae cultured in glass bot- 

 tles for about the first week or so of 

 their existence. 



"It's like feeding 'em Wheaties," 

 Capehart says. "They grow much 

 faster and they get a better start." 



The clams hatch within two days 

 and enter a larval stage. During this 

 larval stage, Capehart sieves the clams 

 through screens to separate the larger 

 larvae from the smaller larvae. 



In eight to 14 days the larval clams 

 are ready to set or drop from the water 

 column to the bottom. A larval clam 

 preparing to set has a tiny shell and 

 muscular foot which attaches the clam 

 to a surface. Capehart places the set- 

 ting clams in wooden trays, called 

 raceways, fed by brackish water 

 pumped from the White Oak River. 

 The clams now feed off the nutrients 

 found in the raw seawater. 



Of the several million fertilized eggs 

 Capehart begins with, only about five 

 to 10 percent survive to be placed in 



the raceways. Sorting, disease and 

 other hazards claim many of the larval 

 clams. 



The baby clams nurture in the race- 

 ways until January or February, eight 

 to nine months, before Capehart 

 plants the clams on leased bottom 

 nearby. Capehart prepares his leased 

 area by making a bed for the clams out 

 of scallop shells. After laying the clams 

 on their bed, Capehart tucks them in 

 by staking nets over the bed to ward 

 off predators like crabs, whelks, rays 

 and starfish. 



After a year in their bed, Capehart 

 checked his first crop of clams to deter- 

 mine their progress and the results 

 show in his face. "I was really happy 

 with what I found," he says. "The 

 clams show good growth and not much 

 predation. I really feel encouraged 

 again." 



While Capehart's clams snuggle 

 among the scallop shells in the White 

 Oak River, Monroe Willis' and Earl 

 Huskey's clams still lie in their 

 cement-block raceways in Atlantic. 

 Huskey and Willis, in their first year of 

 operation, are waiting for spring to 

 plant their clams. 



Willis squats by the edge of one of 

 the raceways and scoops his hand 

 through the silt that has settled there. 

 As the feathery silt sifts away, a 

 mound of 3 /s- to Vfc-inch clams appears. 

 "We're going to hold 'em in the race- 

 ways here until next year's crop start 

 setting, about May," Willis says. "We 

 figure the larger they are when we put 

 'em on the lease the less likely they'll 

 be eaten by crabs. Crabs don't bother 

 'em much once the clams get some size 

 on 'em. We've had a few crabs get 

 through our water filtering system and 

 before you know it they'll have a big 

 pile of empty shells over in one of the 

 raceways." 



From crab predation to disease 

 problems, the fisherman starting a 

 clam hatchery faces a lot of unknowns. 

 But straighten out a couple of the 

 mechanical kinks, add a little more 

 science, and clam culture operations 

 like Capehart's and Willis' may offer 

 up more clams for our tables in the 

 future than are fished from the wild. 



(For more information about clam 

 hatcheries and clam gardening, con- 

 tact John Foster of UNC Sea Grant. 

 Foster works with the Aquaculture 

 Demonstration Project in Aurora and 

 can be reached by calling (919) 322- 

 4054). 



