July 17, 2004
Eager eaters go digging for dinner
By Cynthia Woolbright
Eugene Thrasher is a bivalve lover. Specifically,
he loves clams. Big, small, brown-shelled, white-shelled, hard to
find and abundant - they're all his friends, or at least frequent
dinner dates.
He loves digging for his dinner and as a guide for Island County/WSU
Beach Watcher's Adventures in Nature series class
Digging for Dinner he shares his love for bivalves with anyone whose
shells are open to it.
Last month, he was in Freeland Park lugging a large plastic tote
toward the picnic area. Eighteen people were trailing behind on
this slightly overcast day with light wind, drooling over the possibilities
of harvesting their own shellfish.
Or at least, digging some other day. Lesson number one in this guided
tour by Thrasher was knowing which beaches are open for shellfish
harvesting. Freeland Beach had been closed for
weeks - there'd be talk of digging but none done.
Thrasher teaches people about different shellfish, shows them how
to dig, what not to dig for, what to remember to bring, what licenses
are required, what to leave at home and what steps not to forget.
"I want my grandkids to be able to do this," Thrasher said of his
push for wise harvesting.
Before you head anywhere, Thrasher said, call the Department of
Health Marine Biotoxin Hotline at 800-562-5632. Lengthy name aside,
number is any shellfish harvesters potentially life saving resource
to avoid beaches that have been closed to harvesting due to bacteria,
biotoxins, viruses or chemicals.
But before he got too far into regulations, he a gave a tease of
the prize at stake. Bag after bag, box after box, Thrasher opened
his treasure chest devoted to clams, oysters and other tasty seaside
creatures to show the group shell examples of shellfish he had enjoyed
over the years.
He talked about how to identify the varieties, the taste and texture
pros and cons, and some of the best beaches to locate them all.
He tossed around names like Cherry stone, also called the Pacific
little neck; Manilas, referred to many as steamers; and butter clams.
The longer the neck, the more it has to travel to the surface and
work out to become tough, he shared. The shorter the neck, the more
tender the meat, Thrasher believes.
He asks the group why the shells of a certain species of clams are
few and far between on Whidbey beaches.
"Their shells are edible?" someone asks, later learning the species
simply prefers other waters.
Thrasher dug into the topic of tools - shovels of different sizes
and shapes, buckets, mesh bags, tubes - and how knowing which tools
to match with which clam can make the difference.
"You definitely wouldn't go after a geoduck with this," he said
holding up a small garden tool.
You have to know which way your creature likes to dig.
"Otherwise you can dig right into them and break them in half,"
he said. "If you know that a geoduck will want to head back a certain
direction you can cut him off at the pass."
Little known fact: a bucket can be a safety tool.
"I've seen people out on the beach who start to
get sucked in by the sand and the fire department has to be called
because they're trapped," Thrasher said. "You can use your bucket's
wide base to get leverage and pull your foot out."
And roughly knowing shellfish harvesting rules isn't enough, as
Thrasher demonstrated during a talk and visual display on daily
harvesting limits.
"Ten pounds or 40 clams," he said.
Not knowing the limits and not following them can lead to serious
fines and no clams for the future, he said.
As he showed bags with a harvest sample of various species, the
group was surprised.
"It was new to learn the volume that was allowed to be harvested,"
said Kim Larsen of Bayview. "It was also surprising to hear the
lengths people will go to stretch those limits."
Larsen came to the talk with her husband Rob Wickman, and the couple's
two daughters. As mom and dad listened to Thrasher talk of identifying
creatures under sand by the shape of the holes they make above,
the two blonde girls looked around on their own.
"See that, it's probably a shrimp. That one looks like a horse clam
and the smaller ones could be Manilas."
A nearby pool catches one of the girl's attention, and Thrasher
stops the group to visit the shallow pool filled with shells.
"That's what you get when people improperly place clams back and
don't know how to recover their digging," he said. "See all the
silt that has built up and suffocated everything."
Choy-gee Chu of Greenbank, a math teacher at Olympic View Middle
School in Mukilteo, came to gather information she could pass along
to her students.
She's a self-described animal identification freak.
"If you know what's there you can help preserve it," she said
As a former resident of Florida and New York, Chu has the ability
to compare East Coast and West Coast sealife as an added bonus.
"There has to be a sensitivity for the beach ,"
Chu said. "Just walking on the surface you see life, so we have
to be aware of what we do to the environment and how it affects
the life below also."
Clam digging
Learn proper clamming etiquette from Eugene Thrasher Tuesday, July
20, at noon and 1:30 p.m., Thursday, July 22, at North Penn Cove/Zylstra
Road. Need to have parking pass and shellfish license.
Go on more adventures
Beach combing: Find out what's on the beach
with Sammye Kendall today, Saturday, July 17, at 1 p.m.
Meet at Libbey Beach at end of Libbey Road.
Light stories: Hear Swedish folk tales and lighthouse ghost stories
with Kesti Brorson, Saturday, July 24, at 1 p.m. Escape from a busy
summer's day into a world of fantasy and legend at Admiralty Head
Lighthouse.
Spouts and flukes: Beach Watchers Adventure in
Nature Monday, July 26, is Gray Whales and Marine Wonders with Sandy
Dubpernell. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Coupeville Wharf, learn more about
the incredible life cycle of gray whales and their journey through
the Pacific Ocean. Island County is also home to many marine wonders
learn more about these sea critters.
© Copyright 2003 Whidbey News Times
Reproduced with permission