Photos by Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Herb Filer of Enumclaw helps clamming partner Lee Osborn of Buckley after Osborn lost his footing and fell into the water while searching for razor clams during a wet and windy fall storm at Ocean Shores.

Edna Golla displays the reward that comes from an excursion into less-than-ideal weather -- a handful of juicy razor clams.

Dig in

Rain, wind and cold won't stop razor clam enthusiasts

N.S. NOKKENTVED, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published November 27, 2001

OCEAN SHORES -- What is it about razor clams that makes people so crazy? The answer is easy for most clam lovers: Razor clams are simply the best eating clams in the Northwest, if not the world.

"I'm willing to put up with a little snotty weather to get them," says Tom Northup of Aberdeen, who braves the weather to dig some of these delectable morsels.

On this particular day, everything is dull gray -- the sand, the sky, the ocean -- and the wind is howling out of the south at more than 30 mph with gusts around 50 mph driving north along the beach. Raindrops sting like hail.

Still, the beach is dotted with the brightly colored rain gear of determined clam diggers.

"It's only an avid one who would go out on a day like today," Northup says.

Why?

"They're so darn good to eat." He says he would crawl through rusty nails and broken glass to get them. "They're that good."

Authentic activity

Edna Golla had taken a half-day off from work to go clamming on the day when the low tide comes just at dusk. The best time to dig razor clams is about an hour or two before the low tide.

"On a windy, rainy day like this, it would be much worse in the dark," Golla says.

Daylight digs at low tide are rare in the winter season, her clamming partner Tony Chin says.

"When you're getting them, you don't feel the cold and the wet," Chin says.

Digging razor clams -- even in a driving rainstorm -- is an authentic Northwest activity, says Kirk Dawson of Seattle, the wind whipping his blue rain slicker.

"You plan ahead, and you take your chances," he says, grinning. "We'll go back to the house and laugh about it later."

Nearby a clam digger taps the sand with a shovel handle. He looks for little craters where a clam has withdrawn its siphon.

"They're down about a foot to foot and a half," Dawson says.

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife clam biologist Don Ayres says the taste and the sport drive people.

"It's not an Easter egg hunt," he said. "You have to work for them."

The process

When a clam shows in the sand -- it may squirt sand and water out of its hole -- you have to work fast. Razor clams can dig down quickly in the soft sand.

Sink the shovel blade straight down into the sand just on the water side of where the clam disappeared. Pull the sand up with the blade held vertically to avoid breaking the clam. It may take several shovels full to get the clam. And you may have to reach into the hole to find it.

Not every hole yields a clam.

Chin uses a white plastic tube about 3 feet long and about 4 inches in diameter -- known as a clam tube or clam gun.

Facing the ocean, he centers the tube over a "clam show." He works it in quickly and carefully, twisting it a foot or so into the sand. With his thumb over the air vent he pulls the tube up, dumps out the core and finds a clam in the sand. Rinsing it in the surf, he drops it in the net hanging from his waist.

He searches the gray sand intently for the next clam.

The business

Fish and Wildlife has allocated 5.26 million razor clams for recreational diggers such as Chin -- that's nearly twice the number of the previous five years. Diggers must have a valid license, and they must keep only the first 15 clams they dig, regardless of size or condition.

Razor clams also are important to the beach communities of the Washington coast.

Diggers come and stay in the local hotels and eat in the restaurants, says Barbara Smith of the Ocean Shores Chamber of Commerce.

"We're always thrilled to death when they open the clam season," she says. "Especially in the winter when people aren't coming to vacation in the sun."

In the wind and the surging water, Lee Osborn, 84, loses his equilibrium and falls in the water. He comes up smiling.

"It's just one of the things we do," Osborn says. He's been coming to the beach to dig razor clams for more than 70 years.

"What a guy won't do for a clam," says Herb Filer, Osborn's longtime clamming partner.

N.S. Nokkentved covers the outdoors for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5445.

How do you clean a razor clam?

- Step one: Remove the shell.

Rinse all sand from the clams; place clams in a colander or in a sink and pour boiling water over them long enough to cause the shells to "pop" open. It takes only five to 10 seconds. Do not soak the clams in boiling water.

After the clams are open, put them in cold tap water and remove the meat from the shell.

Or cut the four muscle attachments by running a sharp knife along the inner surface of each shell.

- Step two: Remove the tip of the siphon, gills and digestive tract -- the dark parts of the clam. You can use either a sharp knife or scissors.

First, snip off the tip of the siphon, open the body from the base of the foot to the tip of the siphon.

The paired gills and mouth parts are removed with two cuts. Throw away the small "pea crabs" or flatworms found inside the body of the clam. They don't affect the quality of the clam.

Next, squeeze the foot and make a circular cut to remove the stomach. Note: the clear rod in the foot should be removed. Slit the foot so it will lie flat. Pick out the small intestine that runs through the foot.

Rinse, and the clam is ready for cooking.

Source: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Want to try?

Washington beaches will be open for razor clam digging again from noon until midnight on the following days:

- Dec. 13: Low tide at 5:27 p.m., minus 0.6; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks.

- Dec. 14: Low tide at 6:13 p.m., minus 0.7; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks.

- Dec. 15: Low tide at 6:56 p.m., minus 0.7; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks, Kalaloch.

- Dec. 30: Low tide at 6:40 p.m., minus 0.8; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks.

- Dec. 31: Low tide at 7:24 p.m., minus 1.0; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks.

- Jan. 1: Low tide at 8:09 p.m., minus 1.0; Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, Mocrocks.

If you go

- Check to see: Planned openings for razor clams depend on marine toxin levels. Check with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at 360-249-4628 or 360-902-2259 to make sure the beaches still are open. Or call the Department of Health marine toxin hot line at 800-562-5632.

On the web:

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Department of Health

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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