Pembroke and Perry Clam Flats Reseeded by Volunteers

Fishermen’s Voice photo

Using monies generated from license fees (from the diggers), two towns have invested in 350,000 pea-sized young clams to seed flats The clam seed were purchased from the Down East Institute in Beals, Maine.

Clammers met at 2:30 pm at the Pembroke town hall on Rte. 1 to receive the seed and then proceeded to the town boat launch to take boats out and broadcast the seed into the soft mud as the tide came in. Seeds were broadcast by hand over the rail of the boat.

The young clams will have close to 20 hours of protection from seagulls. That will give them time to dig down into the substrate. The evening flood tide, the night-time low tide, and the flood tide again the next morning will protect them from seagulls. By the next afternoon’s low tide, how well they have colonized the sand and mudflats will be evident. Clams are seeded in the early spring to minimize predation from Green Crabs as they are still in deeper waters wintering over.

This is the first time in local history that DEI hatchery seed have been used on local clam flats, said Gulf of Maine, Inc.’s Tim Sheehan. Clam diggers were excited to see how the seed takes and grows over the next few years, said Sheehan. Diggers selected two areas to broadcast the seed – Hersey Cove in Pembroke and East Bay in Perry. Broadcasting the seed took about two hours.

It is hoped that this effort is just the beginning of an ongoing clam seeding project to rebuild and reinvigorate this historic shellfish industry in the area. At present, Gulf of Maine, Inc. has recorded over 250 local diggers earning income from local clam flats in Eastport, Perry, Robbinston, Pembroke, and Pleasant Point, said Sheehan.

The local industry is valued at several million dollars in revenue each year.

More clam flat seeding is planned for later this spring with private monies raised by local diggers and Gulf of Maine, Inc. It is hoped that this seed can be applied to flats in other towns such as key digging areas in Eastport, Pleasant Point and Robbinston. Permission from those towns is pending.