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Article Excerpt
Introduction
The quahog, Mercenaria spp., ranging from the Canadian Maritimes to Mexico's southern State of Campeche, has long provided North Americans with a high quality food and has also been an important part of the seafood trade and sociocultural customs. Officially, the common name "northern quahog" is listed for Mercenaria mercenaria, which ranges from New Brunswick, Canada, into Florida, while "southern quahog" is given for Mercenaria campechiensis, ranging mainly from Florida to southeastern Mexico (Turgeon et., 1998). But in the industry, the term quahog is used from the Canadian Maritimes through Rhode Island, while simply clam or hard clam is used from Connecticut through Texas; in Mexico, it is the almeja (clam).
The first article (Part I) reviewed the range, biology, and ecology of quahogs, gave an historical overview of the industry (including wampum manufacture and usage and the use of quahogs in clambakes), and described harvesting gears and methods. This article (Part II) summarizes the history of the industry in specific Canadian provinces and U.S. and Mexican states, describes harvesting gears and methods (including trips with typical quahogers and wardens) in more detail, and discusses quahog enhancement programs. The authors have been professional observers of quahogs and the quahog fishery for many years. A substantial amount of the text material is based upon these observations and is unannotated. The remaining material is collected from the literature and is so cited.
History of Quahoging by Country Canada
The Canadian Maritime provinces are at the northern end of the northern quahog's range (Fig. 1). The northernmost location where a commercial fishery ever existed was off the town of Neguac on the north side of Miramichi Bay, New Brunswick. Except for a short pulse in the 1950's, the fishery for northern quahogs in the Canadian Maritimes was relatively small until the 1970's, but it has since expanded as the demand for quahogs grew, especially in the United States which receives 90% of its landings (Jenkins et al., 1997). The fishery is concentrated in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Fishermen harvest quahogs in inlets around Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) and in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which border on Northumberland Strait. In addition, a new fishery in St. Mary's Bay, an arm of the Bay of Fundy, in southwestern Nova Scotia began in 1997.
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The initial literature reference found regarding quahog harvesting in Prince Edward Island was by MacBride (1912), who stated the fishery was of recent origin. The quahogs were harvested with rakes having teeth 23 cm long. The quahogs were taken up with lumps of bottom or "blue mud," that was shaken out before the quahogs were removed. The demand was entirely for half-grown quahogs, because the "bull" quahogs (chowders) had a foot deemed too tough to chew. Some oystermen complained that harvesting quahogs damaged oyster beds.
The 1950's pulse in quahog production came from the Neguac area and lasted for about three years (Daigle(1)); the highest annual landings, about 2,040 t of whole quahogs (=57,000 bu, or 627,000 lb of meat), were in 1953. This Neguac stock previously had not been exploited, but recruitment to it apparently was low. The fishermen harvested the quahogs by "crawling" (Fig. 2) and removed nearly all the stock. After the fishing ended, most remnant quahogs ultimately died of a disease (Caddy and Chandler, 1976), later thought to be QPX (Landry(2)). The area no longer has a commercial fishery.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
Throughout the late 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's, annual Maritimes quahog production remained below 225 t of shell stock (about 6,300 bu or 70,000 lb of meat) (Caddy and Chandler, 1976), but from 1984 through 1997 it fluctuated between 500 t (=14,000 bu, or 154,000 lb of meat) and 1,000 t (=28,000 bu, or 308,000 lb of meat). In 1998, production was 694 t (=19,500 bu, or 215,000 lb of meat) (Canada Fisheries and Oceans statistics).
On P.E.I., the most productive quahog harvesting areas are in the West, North, Hillsborough, and Vernon Rivers, and in Percival and Malpeque Bays. In New Brunswick, they are in Cocagne and the Shediac Bridge area, while in Nova Scotia they are in Wallace Harbour, Tatamagouche Bay, and Pictou Harbour. Additional small stocks exist in little inlets, such as St. Ann's Bay on the northeast shore of Cape Breton Island (Moore (3)). On a limited scale, the stocks are harvested recreationally.
About 75% of the Maritimes quahogs currently are landed on P.E.I. by 300--400 fishermen (Jenkins (4)). The peak harvesting period is from late June to late September when water temperatures range from 10[degrees]-25[degrees]C. New Brunswick has 30-50 quahog fishermen, and Nova Scotia, where quahog harvesting has been increasing in recent years, has 100-125 quahog fishermen, of these 25 harvest in contaminated waters on the Northumberland Strait portion of Nova Scotia (Gillis(5)) and 30 harvest in St. Mary's Bay (McGuire (6).
No one has identified the quahog predators in the Maritimes. The likely predators in the estuaries include mud crabs (family Xanthidae); rock crabs, C. irroratus; and starfish, A. vulgarus and A. forbesi.
Government Regulations
Fishermen who harvest quahogs for sale must possess a license issued by the Canadian Government. A limited number of licenses are issued, so new entrants must obtain a license from a person who wishes to leave the fishery.
The only closed season for clean water harvesting in the Maritimes is in Queen's County, P.E.I., where in 1998 the closed season extended from 1 May to the first Monday following 15 July. This was an experimental closure and it was continued in 1999. The harvesting of quahogs in contaminated areas for relaying was allowed in this area during this closed season. Also in 1999, Sunday and nighttime fishing was not allowed in Queen's County. The minimum lengths that quahogs can be harvested are 50 mm in P.E.I., and 38 mm in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In some areas, fishermen are discouraged from taking chowders to ensure that adequate spawning stocks are maintained.
Fishing Methods
Fishermen use four quahog harvesting methods: 1) "crawling" (hand picking), 2) "stomping" or "tramping" (walking), 3) raking, and 4) tonging. The first three methods are used on intertidal flats and in wading depths during low tides. Most effort takes place during large, full-moon tides when larger and less fished areas are available. The tide level ranges from 0.5-3 m in various locations in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The most common and productive method is "crawling," in which a fisherman, while crawling on hands and knees, sweeps his hands through the mud to find quahogs. The method is used in water less than 0.75 m deep and on intertidal flats. The fishermen wear gloves and usually have a container supported by a tire inner tube for flotation tied to their bodies for holding the quahogs.
When crawling in eelgrass beds, the fishermen have to wear shirts with long sleeves to protect their arms from cuts. Harvesting is easiest in areas covered by sea lettuce because the quahogs protrude above the mud-like sediments. Crawlers do not like to harvest in shelly bottoms because the shells will cut their gloves. The most productive fishermen harvest up to 5-6 hr and obtain 100 to 200 lb (1.25-2.5 bu) of quahogs/day when favorable tides occur.
"Stomping" or "tramping" involves fishermen feeling for quahogs with their feet while walking over bottoms in water depths up to 0.75 m or on bare flats. They wear stockings or neoprene booties to protect their feet from sharp shells. This method is used on firmer and sometimes sandier bottoms than those where "crawlers" harvest. The quahogs are easier to locate when the areas are covered with water than on bare flats. When a "stomper" finds a quahog, he bends over and picks it up, and, after making sure it is legal size, places it in a bucket or floating container. "Stompers" harvest about 66% as many quahogs as "crawlers" do in a day.
Fishermen rake quahogs on intertidal beaches (Fig. 3). The rakes are 15-25 cm wide and are either homemade or modified garden rakes. The raking is done mostly in firm sand and clay bottoms, often close to shore, but sometimes in rocky areas where other methods are not used. Fishermen stand and rake through the sediments. Raking in water is not effective because the quahogs are difficult to locate in the salty water stirred up by the rake. Some crawlers use rakes if they are in an area of abundant quahogs where a rake is the only suitable method (Gay(7)). Rakers usually harvest about half as many quahogs as the "crawlers," because their time available per tide is shorter.
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
Fishermen tong quahogs where water depths range from 0.5 to 4 m (Fig. 4). Bottoms with shells produce the most quahogs. The fishermen tong from dories 4.5 to 5 m long and propelled by 10-35 hp outboard motors. The dories have tonging boards in their bows for culling and measuring shellfish. Their anchor lines are looped around hooks on the culling boards to allow easy adjustment of their lengths. From 30 to 40 tongers work in the 3 provinces in any given summer day, and each tonger harvests 100-250 lb (1.25-3 bu) of quahogs/day.
In some areas of Prince Edward Island, fishermen who possess a clam license also harvest some quahogs in their tongs while harvesting oysters during the oyster season, which runs from 1 May to 15 July and 15 September to 30 November. The quahog by catch is relatively small and varies in size among areas. At least half the Maritimes' quahog landings are harvested by "crawlers," while tongers harvest the least amounts. Raking and "stomping" together account for less than a third of the total.
St. Mary's Bay Fishery
In 1997, a new quahog fishery in St. Mary's Bay supported about 30 fishermen, most all of whom were experienced softshell clammers. They used modified 4-5 tine clam rakes (hacks) with short handles for harvesting quahogs. Tides in this area rise and fall an average of about 6 m, exposing tidal flats that may extend as far as 1.5 km from shore. The fishermen travel to the quahog grounds using vehicles called "four wheelers." At times during the summer, the fishermen can harvest during both the morning and afternoon low tides. Each harvests about 220 lb (2.75 bu) of quahogs/tide (McGuire(6)). St. Mary's Bay is closed to direct harvesting for market due to bacterial contamination, and so the quahogs have to be depurated in the Maritimes' only on-shore depuration facility, located in Digby County, N.S.
Quahog Dealers
Fishermen sell their quahogs to shellfish dealers, who also handle oysters; softshells, Mya arenaria; blue mussels, Mytilus edulis; and surfclams, Spisula solidissima. P.E.I. has about eight shellfish dealers who handle quahogs, New Brunswick has two, and Nova Scotia has four including the depuration plant in Digby County. The P.E.I. dealers recently began buying quahogs by the piece rather than by weight, because they were selling them by the piece. Dealing by weight became awkward because quahogs from different areas and bottom types vary in weight depending on their shell thickness and shape (Fortune(8)). In 1998, P.E.I. dealers paid per piece Can$0.20-0.24 for small, $0.17-0.19 for medium, and $0.08-0.10 for large quahogs. In New Brunswick, dealers paid about Can $1.35/1b for small, $0.65/1b for medium, and $0.15/1b for large quahogs. The fishermen truck their quahogs from the shores to the dealers' plants. Some fishermen pay other quahogers Can$1.00/bu to deliver them.
Dealers who relay contaminated quahogs must hold them for a minimum of 14 days on an approved clean-water lease for depuration before marketing them. Many quahogs harvested from closed areas in Nova Scotia are relayed to P.E.I. for deputation. Before being marketed, relayed quahogs must be tested for bacterial contamination by an approved laboratory, such as the Food Technology Center in Charlottetown, P.E.I. New Brunswick does not have a fishery for quahogs in contaminated waters. Most quahogs are taken to the United States in temperature-controlled trucks, and they have a 30-day shelf-life.
Recreational Fishery
Throughout their range in shallow waters in the Maritimes, quahogs are harvested by tourists and local people for home use, though softshells and surfclams are more popular with the recreationalists. A license is not required by recreational clammers, but a person cannot possess more than 50-100 quahogs depending on the location. The quahogs are gathered by "stomping," raking, or digging with forks or shovels. Quahogs harvested by recreational harvesters are not included in official landings statistics. Canadians rarely eat quahogs raw on the half-shell. Littlenecks, topnecks, and cherrystones are usually steamed and then eaten.
Quahog Culture
The three provinces have conducted culture trials with quahog seed produced in various hatcheries. The trials, initiated in the mid 1970's, have provided rather poor results due to the 6-7 yr usually required for the quahogs to attain a length of 50 mm (Kerswill, 1949) and problems with predators. In addition, substantial numbers of juveniles often die from other causes in their first winter.
Quahogs adapted for fast growth ("notata" variety) are being tested. Three known importations took place between the early 1990's and 1997. The first two were "unofficial" while the third came to P.E.I. from the Aquaculture Research Corporation in Dennis, Mass. The "notatas" were spawned in the hatchery at the Ellerslie Fisheries Station in January 1998 and growout trials now are underway in the three Maritime provinces. On P.E.I., six sites were chosen for growth trials. In the spring, seed at a mean length of 6.2 mm was planted at a density of 500/[ft.sup.2] in 16 [ft.sup.2] plastic trays containing sand. The mean size of the seed after 4 months was 14.5 mm (MacNair(9)).
United States
Massachusetts
The bays in Massachusetts that have produced the most quahogs have been Wellfleet Harbor, Pleasant Bay, Cotuit Harbor, Buzzards Bay, and Katama Bay (Belding, 1912) (Fig. 5). Massachusetts towns have local control over management of their shellfish resources. It is administered by town-employed shellfish wardens or constables, who work within state regulations administered by the Massachusetts Division of Environmental Law Enforcement. The towns regulate the number of bushels, referred to as a "limit," each quahoger is allowed to land each day (Whittaker(10)).
[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]
To date, the longest historical record about quahoging in any section of the state was published in an article describing the history of shellfishing on Martha's Vineyard in a county historical magazine (MacKenzie, 1992b). The histories of the quahog fisheries in some of the other Massachusetts locations probably are similar. The history on Martha's Vineyard is presented here in lieu of an overall State history. Indian middens containing quahog shells have been found on Martha's Vineyard. One midden, on the northwest shore of Sengecontacket Pond, had quahog and bay scallop shells with some arrowheads scattered to a 60-cm depth throughout a 4-acre field. Indian middens comprised almost entirely of quahog shells also lie along some shores in the town of Marion facing Buzzards Bay; one midden is about 12 m in diameter (MacKenzie et al., 2002:Plate 1). Several others have been covered by house construction.
The first record of commercial quahoging on Martha's Vineyard was written by Freeman (1807): "The poquau (called the quahog in the county of Barnstable) is found in Old Town (Edgartown) Harbor, at Cape Poge, and in Menemsha Pond; great quantities are exported. It is taken with iron rakes in deep water; and in shallow water it is picked up by hand. Cape Poge Pond, a lagune of salt water, affords an inexhaustible supply of poquaus and eels: Boats which are chiefly from Connecticut, frequently enter it and procure poquaus from the natives."
During the 1900's, the fishermen used short rakes, basket rakes, and bull rakes for harvesting quahogs. In the early 1900's, Edgartown had the finest littleneck fishery in Massachusetts. In 1903, the town passed a regulation forbidding the taking of quahogs under 1.5 inches across their widest part. Fishermen who used short rakes got to the beds in rowboats and sailing sharpies (Fig. 6). They put the quahogs in the boat which they towed with a rope around their waist. (Some years later, they began using a basket floated inside an automobile inner tube to hold their quahogs.) The investment required by the fishermen was small: boat, $20: rake, $3; and basket, $2. At this time, Edgartown also had about 40 long-rake fishermen who dug quahogs in 1.5-4.5 m of water from catboats and other boats. The first rake used was the basket rake, which had a pole of yellow pine 6-7 m long. Fishermen later also used bull rakes. In 1907, production of quahogs in Edgartown was 20,000 bu, which brought the fishermen about $32,000, an average of $5-$8/day/ fisherman (Belding, 1912).
[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]
In about 1930, Massachusetts authorities increased the minimum size limit for quahogs to a 2-in (51-mm) diameter. A boom followed in the mid 1930's for Edgartown fishermen, because in 1930 or 1931 quahogs set densely throughout Katama Bay, and about 70 full-time and part-time fishermen raked quahogs there. About 30 regulars dug with short rakes at low tide, mostly in the bay's shallow channels in knee to waist-deep water. About 10 others dug in waters 1.5-3 m deep using basket rakes and bull rakes. The bonanza also attracted about 30 part-timers who harvested the town limit of 2 bu of littlenecks during low tides and also worked at odd jobs ashore. The littlenecks sold for $1.25 and the chowders for $0.50 a bushel. The 1938 Hurricane washed sand over most of the beds and quahogs have never been as abundant since.
During summers, in the 1920's and 1930's, one of the local markets for quahogs was a daily clambake. In addition, summer visitors also purchased littlenecks for half-shell consumption and meats from large quahogs for chowders, both of which were available from markets and peddlers. In the 1950's, littlenecks and cherrystones were offered in some island restaurants and seafood snack bars and sold for 3 for $0.10 or 12 for $0.35, but most of the quahog production was shipped to the mainland. Katama Bay still produces quahogs, and in the 1990's about 15 men, mostly teenagers and retirees, harvested them in the summer.
Darling (1984) describes additional historical details about Massachusetts quahoging in a booklet entitled, "Quahoging Out of Rock Harbor 1890-1930." Rock Harbor is an inlet in Orleans on the north shore of Cape Cod. Its fishermen raked quahogs in Cape Cod Bay. Darling (1984) said, "The safety of the quahoger depended on his boat and engine. The boat had to be able to ride out storms and to ride smoothly at anchor while raking. The first boats used out of the harbor were catboats because they were the ones immediately at hand in the 1890's. They used sails for propulsion. The shape of the cat was nearly ideal for quahoging in that it was wide for its length thereby offering a reasonably stable platform on which to work. Catboats were seldom over 26 feet (7.9 m) in length as a larger cat tended to be clumsy and less sound structurally. With the advent of gasoline powered marine engines the mast was removed and an engine installed.
"As engines became available men began to design and build their own ideas of the perfect quahoging boat. The hulls were made longer and somewhat narrower in relation to their overall length. Decks were made quite flat and the cockpit area was made smaller in relation to the size of the boat. At first there was no break in the level of the deck, but the cockpit coaming was made lower so that it didn't strike the quahoger's leg so high up when the boat rolled. Then a raised deck forward was added which gave an excellent unobstructed working surface at the bow where the launching of the rake took place. This was a mixed blessing as now the quahoger had to be sure to remember to step down to the narrow lower section of the deck, which was outside the coaming of the cockpit, whenever he had raked back to the end of the raised forward deck over the cabin.
"Usually the quahoger-built boats kept the catboat's square stem and shallow draft, but when anchored stern to the waves the square and flat construction of the stern made them pound. The seemingly obvious answer to this problem was to build double-enders which rode easily when stern to the seas. Unfortunately this design rolled excessively when the seas were quartering or broadside and had to be heavily ballasted for the sake of stability. So the square-sterned type was the best after all."
The first engines used in the catboats were the Mianus and the Lathrop. Darling (1984) said, "A single cylinder, 2-cycle Mianus engine had a flywheel, crankshaft, connecting rod and piston. On the front of the engine, between the cylinder and the flywheel, there was an eccentric which moved a push-rod up and down. This rod operated a water pump and the moveable arm of the ignition system. These eight moving parts, some enclosed by the base and cylinder, were the engine! The electrical system consisted of four dry cells connected to a transfomer-like coil which intensified the spark before it was fed to the igniter.
"A small oil reservoir on each cylinder was filled with about a cup of oil before each trip and adjusted to drip oil slowly into the crankcase. No mixing of oil and gasoline was necessary. A grease cup was connected to each of the two main bearings and was turned down half a turn or so before each trip. These engines, both one-and two-cylinder types, turned propellers up to 22 inches (56 cm) in diameter and drove the boats at a steady eight to ten knots, which was as fast as the hulls were designed to go. These engines would move the boat forward or astern equally well depending on how you started them! And, with experience, you could reverse them while running.
"The old Lathrop had no carburetor, but had a device that was called a vaporizer. Gasoline flowed into it and was sucked into the base of the engine through a small unit in which a spring held a brass ball against a collar.
"A one-cylinder 2-cycle Lathrop engine ... had a fixed point of the ignition that went through the top of the cylinder, while the moveable point, which made and broke the contact, went through the front of the cylinder. The spark was produced when these two points broke apart. 'Make and brake' was the name for this type of ignition. This mechanism was activated by a push-rod which in turn was moved by an eccentric on the crankshaft. This eccentric was really an off-center wheel on the crankshaft located between the flywheel and the base of the engine. This same eccentric worked the water pump to cool the cylinder walls. In the oldest engines the cylinder head wasn't cooled at all but this caused problems which led to a change in the design. There were no gears to operate anything--just the eccentric and the push-rod!
"The flywheels on all of these early engines were large, even massive, and had a built-in retractable brass pin to use as a crank. The spring that was supposed to pull these pins back into the flywheel when the engine started could break. This would leave the pin sticking out the full four to five inches (10-12.7 cm) of its length, whirling around with the flywheel! This was a real arm and leg breaker! Alter starting the engine under these conditions a board could be held at a slant in front of the spinning wheel so that the pin would hit the board thus forcing it back into the rim of the flywheel where it belonged."
The fishermen of Rock Harbor dug quahogs in the bight area of Cape Cod Bay between Wellfleet and Brewster. The water depths were 3-12 m. They carried poles for their rakes of lengths of about 8.5, 13, and 17 m. The metal rakes were about 0.75 m wide and had teeth 10 cm long. A net bag 0.75-0.9 m long was attached to hold the quahogs and trash. Besides the rake and poles, each fisherman carried a crockery jug of water to drink (Darling, 1984).
The fishermen found their digging location by sighting ranges on shore points, stakes, and buoys. Upon reaching a good location, they set out a stern and bow anchor, with the bow facing the current. The line (also known as a warp or road) between the anchors was 180 m long and was kept tight to prevent the boat from swinging back and forth. In raking quahogs, the fishermen tossed their rake into the current. The pressure of the current against the rake's handle kept the rake's teeth in the bottom. Two men could rake off a boat, one off each side. They raked the length of the boat by inching backward from bow to stern. When the areas were raked out, they let out slack on the anchor line and turned the rudder to one side, which brought them to a new area. When that area was raked out, the redder was swung the other way and the boat moved in the opposite direction to unraked bottom. If a bottom became fished out, the anchors were reset in another location (Darling, 1984).
The daily catch/man ranged from 3 to 10 bushels; the catch depended mostly on the hours available to work. Before World War I, there were three grades of quahogs: blunts (thick bills), sharps (thin bills), and littlenecks. By the early 1920's, another grade had been added, called "counts" because they counted 100 to a bucket. They included blunts and sharps between 2.5 and 3.5 inches (6.4-8.9 cm) long. Counts today are opened and served on the half-shell as littlenecks or cherrystones (Darling, 1984).
Before 1925, most fishermen packed their quahogs in barrels and shipped them to a shellfish commission merchant in Fulton Market, New York City. They never knew what their pay would be until they got their checks. Around 1925, a local man began buying quahogs. It meant no packing and the fishermen got their checks every day. But if the price was down, the fishermen did not sell their quahogs immediately. They spread them in designated beds and took them up in the fall or early winter when the price was higher. Before World War I, the Rock Harbor fishermen got about $1.00/bushel for quahogs. During the 1920's, the price averaged about $3.50/bushel (Darling, 1984).
In the 1930's, secondhand automobile engines, many from wrecked automobiles, were installed in boats replacing the Mianus and Lathrop engines. The most common was a 4-cylinder Chevrolet engine. They had standard transmissions that were set in high gear, and forward and reverse gears were then possible. The engines were cooled with salt water which ran through the engine block. The engines were durable and many ran more than 10 years.
Information about some other Massachusetts areas over the past 50 years is available. Since the late 1940's, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has conducted a transplanting program from polluted harbors and rivers, such as the Taunton River, which flows past Fall River into Narragansett Bay, to certified beds in Narragansett and Buzzards Bays for depuration and subsequent harvesting by fishermen. Between the mid 1960's and the early 1980's, regular annual relaying was at a rate of about 8,000 bu/yr, and the transplanting continued during the 1990's. In 1980 and 1981, State of Massachusetts surveys of quahog abundance in its polluted waters of Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay (only areas deeper than 3.7 m were included) found the standing crop was 610,000 bu, 75% of which were chowders (Hickey, 1983).
Besides Cape Cod Bay, quahogs also grow in Buzzards Bay and Nantucket Sound, which all have oceanic waters. In the late 1940's, 10 boats using rocking chair dredges began harvesting quahogs in Buzzards Bay. Their ports were various local harbors, such as Dartmouth, New Bedford, and Fairhaven (Bourque(11)). The harvesting continued in later years, and, by the 1990's, 12-15 dredging boats, which ranged from 10 to 15 m long and used hydraulic dredges with blades 40-91 cm wide, harvested quahogs in the bay year-round, except in outer New Bedford Harbor where the season is September--June (Fig. 7). The dredging depths are 2.4-15 m (avg. 9 m). This latter depth is the maximum limit for the hose which leads to the dredge; the ratio of hose length to depth is 3:1. The catch is 90% chowders and the remainder littlenecks and cherrystones. The philosophy is "what comes aboard, stays aboard," except for seed. Individual towns now regulate the number of bushels allowed to be harvested. During the warm months, each boat is limited to 10 bu of littlenecks/ day but can land unlimited quantities of the larger quahogs. During the winter, fishermen can retain all the littlenecks they can harvest because Massachusetts authorities believe they die if returned to the bottom. The boats harvest in their town waters of New Bedford (7 boats), Fair Haven (2 boats), and the Elizabeth Islands (near Cuddyhunk and Penekese Islands) (1 boat) (Whittaker(10)).
[FIGURE 7 OMITED]
During the warm months, about 270 bull takers, short takers, including a few tongers, scuba divers, and treaders harvest quahogs daily in town beds around Buzzards Bay: Westport, 50; Dartmouth, 25; New Bedford, 10; Fair Haven, 30; Mattapoisett, 1: Marion, 10; Wareham, 20: Bourne, 62; and Falmouth, 60. Nearly all the Falmouth fishermen dig only in the winter because the largest beds are closed due to pollution during the warm months. The divers work only in Wareham, 1; New Bedford, 3; and Fair Haven, 6; they use a ping pong paddle with holes in it to scour away the sediments to find the quahogs. The treading is limited to a few men in Marion. Some bull rakers and tongers harvest year-round. Harvests vary by season because the quahogs are near the surface during the warm months, but burrow more deeply during the cold months putting some beyond the range of the rakes' teeth. Each bull taker harvests about 1,400 quahogs ("pieces")/day from late May through September, 1,000 quahogs/day from October through December, and 600-700 quahogs/day from January through mid May (Anderson(12)).
Most of the towns around Buzzards Bay each issue at least 1,200 permits to recreationalists (local resident, seniors, and non-residents) each summer. During summer weekends in good weather and a low tides, about 1,200 recreationalists dig quahogs in the towns around Buzzards Bay: Westport, 225; Dartmouth, 12; New Bedford, 12; Fair Haven, 275: Mattapoisett, 75; Marion, 20; Wareham and Onset, 50; Bourne, 530; and Falmouth, 20. In most towns, each permittee is allowed to land one peck (1/4th bu) of quahogs/week (Bourque(11)). In 1999, quahog landings by Buzzards Bay recreational diggers totaled nearly 15,000 bu, or about 25% as many as the commercial fishermen landed (Whittaker(10)). Some harvesting areas are classified as conditionally approved for digging by the Division of Marine Fisheries. The areas are closed for 5 days immediately following varying amounts of rain in different locations (Bourque(11)).
Cape Cod Bay now has a small dredge fishery for quahogs. The State allows harvesting with rocking chair dredges, but not hydraulic dredges in this bay. About 12 boats are active: 6 sail from Wellfleet and 6 sail from Orleans (Anderson(12)).
Belding (1931) mentioned a quahog fishery using dredges in Nantucket Sound from 1912 to 1915. But he said, after several years of harvesting, the beds were nearly exhausted. Between 1940 and the late 1950's, the beds were harvested sporadically by boats which sailed from ports on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard. In 1956, fishermen used hydraulic jet dredges to harvest the quahogs there for the first time; 5 boats were using them in the late 1950's (Ropes and Martin, 1960). Quahoging ever since has been limited in nearly all of the sound because the quahogs have been scarce (Whittaker(10)).
In May 2001, however, a large bed of quahogs, 4-5 [km.sup.2], was discovered on Handkerchief Shoals in the northeast corner of the sound about 5 km west of Monomoy Island. Its depth is 9-11 meters. In the summer of 2001, 15 boats out of a fleet of 22 boats, 13-22 m long, were harvesting the quahogs daily, each landed about 35 bushels of littlenecks and 35 bushels of cherrystones and chowders. They use hydraulic dredges that are 0.9-1.0 m wide. Their ports are Chatham, Hyannis, Harwich, and New Bedford. The crews observe large numbers of seed quahogs while harvesting, and so the bed may continue to produce for at least a few more years (Whittaker(10)).
Of the three states in southern New England, only Massachusetts has been active in the hatchery-growout culture of producing quahogs, while Rhode Island and Connecticut have been inactive. In 1990, at least 20% of the quahogs produced in Massachusetts resulted from hatchery seed (Anonymous, 1992). In the early 1990's, many towns spread hatchery seed over public beds and about 80 individuals in the state, each with from 0.5 to at least 10 acres of leased bottom, grew the seed (MacKenzie, 1997a).
Since the mid 1990's, about 20 towns around Cape Cod and in Buzzards Bay have purchased and grown seed for their fishermen. The seed has come from two hatcheries in Massachusetts and others in Maine, New York, and New Jersey. Before any batch of seed could be imported from the other three states, it had to be certified as disease-free by recognized authorities. The State authorities have not allowed imports of hatchery seed produced south of New Jersey, because they have feared it may carry diseases. Some towns have purchased 1-mm seed at $3-$4/1,000 and grown it in floating upwellers. It has been later grown in boxes or under screens where its survival has been as high as 80%. Town workers spread this seed over public grounds at sizes slightly smaller than littlenecks. At such sizes, few quahogs have been killed by predators. Other towns have purchased seed at about 18 mm in length, which costs $33-$35/1,000, and spread it without protection from predators. The towns involved in quahog programs have each purchased from 0.25 to 5 million seed/yr (Moles(13)). Fishermen have found higher harvests on the public beds as a result of the "seeding," but the exact contributions of the cultured quahogs to the total harvests have not been determined. In most towns, fishermen license lees for shell fishing have been raised from $25/yr to $200/yr to pay for the purchases and growing of the seed (Anderson (12)).
The attitudes of authorities in various towns differ toward leasing bottoms. At one extreme, authorities in Wellfleet have allowed unlimited leasing of public bottoms and nearly all its bottoms now are leased. At the other extreme, authorities in Chatham, which is one of the state's most important quahog producers, and several other towns allow no leasing of public bottoms. Their authorities felt it would be too difficult to lease bottoms equitably among the towns' fishermen (Anderson(12)).
The number of individuals who now grow quahogs on their leases (grants) in Massachusetts has risen to about 250. The large increase in the quahog culturing on leases began in 1994-95. It was assisted by the Northeast Regional Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service, Gloucester, Mass., which provided about $420,000 to fund three quahog culture projects. The projects, 2 of which were training projects for fishermen, were part of an aquaculture focus through the Fishing Industry Grant Program and the Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program, which together supported 41 shellfish and finfish aquaculture projects costing $7.3 million during FY 1994-99. Most individuals who participated in the two quahog training projects were fishermen who had been losing substantial time finfishing due to declining stocks of groundfish and other species: the techniques learned gave them the ability sell seafood they raised themselves (Beal(14)).
Each leaseholder purchases from 10,000 to 4,000,000 seed/yr. They spread it on their leased bottoms and cover it with nets (Fig. 8). The nets have to be cleaned regularly, because they collect fouling organisms which clog the meshes in the nets and during winter silt collects under them. If the silt is not washed away, it can smother the quahogs. The survival rate of quahogs from initial planting to harvesting, 28-60 months later, is about 50% (Kruczek(15)). When the quahogs attain littleneck size, they are harvested with bull rakes. Most individuals earn from $5,000 to as much as $50,000/yr from their quahog leases (Moles(13)).
With the increased number of active quahog leases in the state since 1990, the quantity of quahogs landed that was produced from hatchery seed probably has risen and it was above 20% of total quahog landings in Massachusetts. As a consequence of the increased landings, landed prices of littlenecks fell from $0.23/piece in 1995 to $0.17-$0.18/ piece in 1999. The quality of hatchery quahogs is not quite as good as wild quahogs. Selected for fast growth by the hatcheries, their shelf-life is shorter, and their shells are thinner and more brittle than wild quahogs. A higher percentage of hatchery quahogs than wild quahogs is broken when sorted and counted by machines (Anderson(12)).
Trip on a Shellfish Warden's Boat: Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, 18 May 2001
The day began at 9:30 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m. because the warden had to prepare slips...
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