Quahoggers rake in 10 tons of clams

By shellfishing standards it was nothing short of a giant catch –about 100,000 quahogs in less than four hours of raking.

That’s what 80 shellfishermen hauled in Tuesday morning working the confined area of Greenwich Cove.

“That’s the honey hole for quahogs in the bay,” says John Torgan, baykeeper for Save the Bay.

Torgan, along with representatives from the Nature Conservancy, the Department of Environmental Management, the Salt Ponds Coalition and the Rhode Island Shellfishermen’s Association assisted in the operation.

Such a rich bounty would surely have seafood lovers take note. However, none of the hard shell clams harvested will end up on dinner plates, although their offspring could one day.

All 10 tons of clams were transplanted to a 52-acre site in Quonochontaug Pond in Westerly via a flatbed truck more frequently used to transport earth-moving equipment. The selected site is a spawning sanctuary where shellfishing is prohibited.

The intent, explains Torgan, is for the transplanted quahogs to seed the remainder of the pond.

“It’s a program that has been proven to work,” says Art Ganz, formerly of the DEM and president of the Salt Ponds Coalition.

Ganz said for reasons unknown there are large qualities of quahogs in Apponaug, Warwick and Greenwich Coves.

“They are fairly bullet proof,” Ganz says of the clams, as compared to oysters and soft-shell clams that are more sensitive to reduced dissolved oxygen levels that can result in shell and fin fish kills. The coves are also off limits to shellfishing because of pollution.

“These animals are living fat, dumb and happy above the pollution line,” he said.

While at the DEM, Ganz set up the spawning sanctuary in Quonochontaug in 1978 but never had the funds to put in large quantities of clams. An initial transplant of 150 bushels, he said, produced a doubling of the pond’s quahog population in three years.

“So we know it works,” said Ganz.

Tuesday’s weather was the biggest challenge for the quahoggers. It was windy, on the chilly side and exceedingly wet. Finding the clams was a snap. Some shellfisherman worked a stone’s throw away from the dock where 50-pound sacks were piled on the flatbed for their road trip. Because of the cove’s polluted waters, it is closed to quahogging. Torgan believes the thinning of cove beds could actually help the clams not taken and improve spawning that serves to seed clams in Greenwich and Narragansett Bays.

Now in its second year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and The Nature Conservancy provide $143,414 in financing for the restoration project, with additional technical support contributed by NOAA and the University of Rhode Island. A similar shellfish transplant is scheduled for Ninigret Pond on May 13. The restoration project is testing the value of combining shellfish with eelgrass restoration, as scientists look for ways to restore the entire pond ecosystem. A full-scale eelgrass transplant led by Save the Bay occurred in Ninigret Pond in September of 2008.

Shellfishermen were paid by the sack for harvesting the quahogs. Volunteers completed the operation by releasing them in the pond.

Volunteers for the effort, who are also being recruited for the May 13 transplant in Ninigret Pond, are being coordinated by Save the Bay, renowned for its volunteer organizing capabilities; and the Salt Ponds Coalition, the local citizen volunteer monitoring group which has been the champion for protecting the health of the iconic South County ponds for decades.

To sign up for the upcoming transplant, contact Rebekah Kepple at Save the Bay at 315-2709 or e-mail rkepple@SaveBay.org. Volunteers should be able to lift a 50-pound bag and will have to provide their own gear, including closed-toe shoes or waders and work gloves.