After spending 3 days this week digging up gaper clams (Tresus capax) to weigh and measure, I’d like to think I’m an expert. So here’s a how-to for what I was doing most of the week!

Step 1: Find your clam! Gapers have fairly large siphon holes and you can feel their siphon retract when you stick your finger in the hole (also called a show). They can be found in sandy areas about halfway down the tideflat.

Step 2: Dig it up! Gapers are one of the hardest clams to dig up because the actual clam body is found deep under the sand, sometimes over 2 feet under. My team used a combination of shovels, shrimp guns, and hand digging to get them out. But be careful! Their shells are surprisingly fragile.

Step 3: Measure them! We take a length and a width measurement of the gapers. For length, you start at the siphon edge (the flat edge of the shell on the left in this picture) and travel across the valve (single shell; clams are bivalves, meaning “two shells”) to the longest point. For width, you place the calipers over the umbo – the raised portion where the two valves connect, on the top in the photo- and measure across the widest spot. Finally, you weigh them on a scale.

Easy, yeah? But it’s not as exciting when you have 50+ clams a day to measure, and you don’t even get to eat them.

You are probably curious why we are doing all this digging and measuring in the first place. We want to determine the size/weight distribution of gapers in the Yaquina. We dug up clams in the sand flat under the bridge (Bridge Flat) and the sand/mud flat behind the Hatfield EPA office (Idaho Flat). We noticed right away that there were a lot more gapers in Bridge Flat, but they were smaller than the ones we found in Idaho Flat.

After we were done with the clams, we gave them to a food share here in Newport so they can be eaten by those in need. I was really surprised and happy to see this, as I have a personal interest in our nations food system. There is a lot of food that gets wasted in our country, especially in scientific experiments where things are often frozen and thawed and thus cannot be used for food. I didn’t specifically ask why we couldn’t return them to the bay, but I think it is because these clams live so deep and they wouldn’t be able to dig back down before getting eaten/harmed.

As far as adventurers in Oregon, we had quite a week with the holiday! We had a wonderful potluck on Wednesday and I brought some homemade berry pie. This weekend I rode my bike over the bridge with Kate to the farmers market and then went surfing this afternoon with Hilary and another intern, Liz.

The next 2 weeks at work will be very long, so I apologize in advance if I post at a strange time. I will be doing subtidal dredge work (like last week) in Tillamook from Tuesday to Friday, and again Sunday to Thursday of next week. It will be quite an adventure I think!

Also, because we can’t go “picture crazy” here, I made a separate blog so I can post as many pictures as I want. check it out!  http://travelingtegula.blogspot.com/

Until next week, stay classy Oregon Sea Grant…