Working Waterfront -Mainers likely have heard about the precipitous decline in soft-shell clam landings over the last five years. While the fishery remains the third most valuable fishery in the state at over $12 million, licenses have declined over the last several decades and landings are following suit.
In 2017, landings dropped to 6.9 million pounds from 11.3 million pounds in 2013, and the value dropped $3.8 million from 2016. In addition to economic benefits, this fishery is an integral part of Maine’s culture, and clams are key to the intertidal ecosystem.
The major causes for population decline are predation by green crabs, milky ribbon worms, and other species, as well as other impacts of a changing climate, like ocean acidification.
Restoration ideas range from collecting wild seed or buying cultivated clam seed and then planting it in the intertidal zone and protecting it with netting, to instituting rolling harvesting closures, and changing minimum and/or maximum harvest sizes. Some of these measures have been implemented in areas of the coast.
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