Shellfish / Bay Clam
Shellfish: Bay Clam
Saxidomus gigantea
In window now~142d left
Open
Year-round
No pronounced peak. Sweet firm meat is roughly flat year-round with a mild cold-water firming; the dominant seasonal concern is toxin, not condition.
signal · PSP/domoic biotoxin levels (butter clams retain PSP unusually long), water temp. (assumed)
Plate No. 036 · Finley & Bohlman
Abundant, low impact
Common and long-lived on the deeper flats; a modest dig makes no dent. Backfill your holes.
The read
Thick rectangular shell, concentric rings. Sweet, firm meat from the deeper flats.
The event: A minus tide on firm estuary flats; the butters dig deep.
Field notes
Deeper than the cockle and littleneck: firm sand and gravelly mud, down 8–14 in. Find the paired siphon holes on a minus tide and dig with a shovel; the butters sit in the layer below the shallow clams.
The keeper is heavy, thick-shelled, and shut tight, with sweet, firm, cream-white meat. Butters hold quality year-round better than any other bay clam, but they fill firmest in the cold months. A shell that gapes and won't pull closed is dead; leave it.
Thick, chalk-white, rectangular shell with fine concentric rings and no radiating ribs: that separates it from the ridged cockle and the crosshatched littleneck.
Shellfish license (12+). Part of the 20-clam daily bay aggregate.
Confirm the bay is open before you dig.
Steam open for the pot, or shuck and mince the firm body for chowder and fritters. The siphon is tougher; pound or grind it.
Where to find it
What we watch: live feeds
What informs Butter Clam in particular. The shared feeds it reads (tides, weather, water temp) are the live feeds above.
ODA shellfish closures: ArcGIS FeatureServer · Machine-readable open/closed status for clams & mussels by coast zone, as polygons with a coded Status field.
Event (~2×/mo) · JSON, no key. ESRI IDs rotate; anchor on dashboard item metadata, not raw URL.