Soft shell clams are declining and those who depend on the state’s second-most-valuable fishery are having to adapt
Clams have long been a source of food and income for a variety of people in Maine: the Indigenous Wabanaki, commercial harvesters or anyone willing to dig in the mud. But their populations are declining steeply.
Maine produces 62% of the nation’s softshell clams. They are the second most economically valuable fishery in the state behind lobster and sustain people’s livelihoods up and down the coast.