Clamming Comes Back

The Island is full of talented fishermen, but even those hopeless with a hook can enjoy clamming. Clams are captives, lying lazily in wait for their captor. Successful quahauging takes only a rake.

It’s therapy. As Christopher Russell Reake puts it in The Compleat Clammer, ”Standing still, alone at the edge of the water on a long stretch of deserted beach, or walking slowly through an inland saltwater marsh at low tide, I feel very much at peace with an unchanging part of the world. I find it easy to center in this world that is characterized by natural bouquets of sea lavender, by sea grasses quivering in the breeze. . .”

It’s sustenance. Digging enough for dinner really is that easy. It takes only a quiet hour in shallow water. You reach down with your preferred grabber, maybe a rake for Dad while impatient kids reach in with their fingers, nevermind the cuts. Soon enough you are saved a trip to the supermarket. Maybe you will have chowder, or maybe clam linguini, maybe stuffers.

It’s tradition. So Islanders, year-round and seasonal alike, have lamented the loss of the easiest and most bountiful shellfishing spot around, Sengekontacket Pond, during the warmest months. Bad bacteria counts three years ago triggered an automatic closure of the pond to summer shellfishing. Its absence has been deeply felt. Idling in the peak season traffic of the market parking lot was no substitute for a wire basketful of fresh bivalves.

Oak Bluffs and Edgartown shellfish constables Dave Grunden and Paul Bagnall did much to make sure the moratorium would not stand. They gathered and analyzed data. They dredged. They did all they could to ensure the pond was healthy. And then they lobbied. And now we can again look forward to summer quahauging.

The only thing that may close the pond this summer is a big rainfall. But surely we’ve had our share of that already, haven’t we?