The harvest of soft-shell clams is dwindling along the coast of New England, where the shellfish are embedded in the culture as much as into the tidal muck.
Soft-shell clams, also called “steamers” or “longnecks,” are one of the northeastern U.S.’s most beloved seafood items, delighting shoreside diners in fried clam rolls, clam strips and clam chowders. But the nationwide harvest fell to a little less than 2.8 million pounds of meat in 2016, the lowest total since 2000, and there are new signs of decline in Maine.
Maine produces more of the clams than any other state, and state regulators say clam harvesters collected a little more than 1.4 million pounds of the shellfish last year. That’s the lowest total since 1930, and less than half a typical haul in the early- and mid-1980s.
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