Clams

The clam business used to be pretty simple. On the West Coast, there were Manilas and that was about it. Back east, there were hard shells and soft shells. And, of course, there were those big surf clams and ocean quahogs which were sliced and diced for chowders and breaded strips. These days, though, as our appetite for this bivalve mollusk has grown, clams have gotten a lot more complicated. Now we have golden necks, Venus clams, cockles and more. Here’s a look at the world of clams.
Surf clams and ocean quahogs, which are processed for use in chowders and breaded strips, are our biggest clam resource by far, producing annual harvests of about 90 million pounds per year (meat weight). These clams are dredged off the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts.
The foot of the Stimpson surf clam, a species caught off the Canadian Maritimes, is a delicacy in Japan and China, where it is called hokkigai and served as sushi.