Brunswick clam kill could damage southern Maine harvest

BRUNSWICK — First, thousands of pogies died and rotted along the southern Maine coast, creating a stench that sent tourists fleeing inland. Now, thousands of clams have died in the same area, apparently because of the pogie kill, and some local officials fear the die-off could hurt the clamming industry in parts of southern Maine over the next two years.

“Between the kills and the areas closed to pollution, the diggers just don’t have any place to go,” said Ellie Swanson, chairperson of Brunswick’s Marine Resources Committee.

She estimated Wednesday that the clam kill will cost the Brunswick area an estimated $2 million in lost revenue from the clamming industry over the next two years and probably will lead to higher local prices for the shellfish.

“Clams are going to be pure gold,” she said.

But the die-off will not hurt Maine’s overall harvest of soft-shell clams, which is the largest in the country, said Bob Lewis, a research planner with the state Department of Marine Resources.

Soft-shell, or steamer, clams harvested from Casco Bay make up about 20-25 percent of Maine’s total clam harvest, he said. Last year, Maine harvested about 160,000 bushels of clams, up from 142,000 bushels in 1988. However, overall clam production in Maine has dropped from about 522,000 bushels in 1977, he said. “We’re at the bottom of the abundance cycle.”

As a result, prices have risen to a yearlong average of about $50 a bushel and to as high as $70 a bushel during the peak of the summer tourist season, he said.

Although the Brunswick-area clam kill won’t affect the state’s production, it will hurt the local clamming industry, said Swanson and other officials.

Brunswick Marine Warden Alan Houston said Wednesday that thousands of clams of all sizes were killed in an 18- to 20-acre flat at Thomas Point Beach, an area used to harvest seed clams since 1976.

The clams apparently were killed as an indirect result of the pogie die-off earlier this summer. In August, thousands of pogies apparently were chased by bluefish into coves where they depleted the oxygen supply in the water and died. In turn, the decaying pogies further depleted the oxygen in the water which led to the clam kill.

“This was a major source of seed clams for Phippsburg, West Bath, Brunswick and Harpswell,” said Dana Wallace, a consultant with Brunswick’s Marine Resources Committee. “We don’t know of any other sources of seed clams in Cumberland County.”

The seed, or baby, clams are transplanted to other clam flats depleted by overdigging. In about three years, the baby clams grow to about 2 inches, the minimum legal size for harvesting.

“Everything’s dead out there now,” Swanson said Wednesday. “We’re not going to have any seed clams to seed this year. If we don’t seed, that means three years from now there won’t be any clams in this area.”

Making matters worse, local officials had planned this fall to transplant seed clams to Maquoit Bay, which has been depleted by overdigging, Wallace said.

“The future looks pretty bleak for our largest producing area,” Wallace said.

Swanson agreed. “I think a clam bake without a clam doesn’t amount to much. I just don’t know what we’re going to do.”