Quahoggers returned Monday to harvest the mother lode of clams from a span of the Providence River stretching north 1,000 acres from Nyatt Point in Barrington to Conimicut Point in Warwick.

“It was good, very good,” said one quahogger who estimated most shellfishermen met their quota in three hours. Reports of high yields of little necks and tops, which command higher prices than larger clams, should not come as a surprise following what happened this summer.

When the Department of Environmental Management opened the Providence River to quahogging for the first time in more than 70 years they scheduled 27 days and projected a harvest of 2 million clams.

That didn’t happen.

Because the summer was so rainy, closing large sections of Narragansett Bay to shellfishing, the Providence River management area was only open to 12 days of quahogging. In addition, shellfishermen couldn’t start harvesting until 8 a.m. and had to stop after three hours. There was also a limit on the harvest of six bushels on most licenses.

Anna Gerber-Williams, principal biologist, DEM Division of Marine Fisheries, said using projections based on transplant operations where quahoggers are paid to dig clams that are then transplanted to other area for later harvesting, DEM estimated 100 quahoggers would show up.

The estimates were blown out of the water when no fewer than 128 quahoggers showed up. The maximum was 197 a day with the average being 160 reported, according to Gerber-Williams. The harvest, even though 15 days were scrubbed from the schedule because a half-inch or more of rain was recorded at Green Airport, ranged from 204,000 to 438,000 clams a day for a total of 3.979 million clams. That was almost double the projection.

“It was amazingly productive,” said Michael McGiveney, president of the Rhode Island Shellfishermens Association.

What’s more, quahoggers who expected to find the larger cherry and chowder clams – after all, the area hadn’t been fished in more than seven decades – were in for a surprise. Ninety-eight percent of the catch was the more profitable top neck and little neck clams, although shellfishermen could have been tossing back the larger clams so as to keep more of the smaller, more profitable little necks and tops.

Now DEM is looking to give shellfishermen “a little bump at this time of year” by reopening the river management area for three consecutive Mondays, the first being this week.

“It’s what the dealers need right now,” Jody King said Monday. King worked an area north of Conimicut Point. He explained dealers need more product at this time of year to meet orders for parties and events in addition to their regular customers.

Overall King estimated about 75 quahoggers, a mix of full-time shellfishermen and part-timers, were on the water Monday. He said the catch was largely little necks and tops, guessing catches for the three hours was 1,500 to 3,000 pieces.

The fact that the area is slated to open for two more days this year he sees as a holiday bonus for the industry.

The summer harvest days also provided a lesson in economics.

Product flooded the markets to the point where dealers turned away quahoggers because they had more clams than they could sell, said Gerber-Williams. She said the prices quahoggers were paid for little necks, which had been as high as 40 cents, plunged to 10 cents each. Meanwhile, those with other outlets were raking in “huge payments.”

She said with the drop in prices some quahoggers requested the area be closed.

King put today’s prices at about 30 cents for little necks, 16 to 17 cents for tops and 30 cents per pound for the “hogs” or larger clams.

Should the area reopen next year, which Gerber-Williams believes possible, the lesson learned is to space the days the area is open so as not to flood the market.

“We’re on a learning curve with management of the area,” she said.

In part that decision will be based on data gathered from dredging done last month. That will be compared with information gleaned from dredging a year ago to give a picture of the impact of opening the area to quahogging.

McGiveney said that about 45 fishermen and three dealers met in September to review what happened over the summer and come up with recommendations going forward. He expects the association will meet with DEM in January to discuss plans for next year.

David Borkman, principal environmental scientist with DEM water resources, who monitored the opening of the Providence River management area, called the water quality “good.”

He was asked if it might be too good, as some shellfishermen reason water quality has improved so much that it has removed the nutrients that phytoplankton feed on, which in turn provide food for shellfish and other marine organisms. Some shellfishermen argue catches (outside of the Providence River) are down because there are fewer quahogs resulting from cleaner water.

Borkman attributed reduced catches to three things.

He said there has been a reduction in “nitrogen loading” of the water, climate change that has made for warmer water and a change in habitat and cleaner water that has reduced closures and meant increased harvesting.

There’s no argument, however, that the Providence River management area has exceeded expectations and has injected vitality into the industry.

“It has been a real boom,” said Gerber-Williams. “The question now is how to best use it going forward.”