Value of clam digging to state keeps climbing

Talk to motel keepers, restaurateurs, shop owners and convenience store clerks, and they will tell you razor clams mean money for coastal communities.

After the summer crowds have long since left, the digs from October to April provide a much needed financial infusion.

In 2005, the value of the state’s recreational razor clam fishery was estimated at $10 million.

But a new study, based on data gathered in 2008, puts the value at $22 million.

The study, done last year, was a cooperative effort between NOAA, the University of Washington and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The impetus for the research was to determine the financial effect of beach closures because of harmful algal blooms that result in high levels of toxins such as domoic acid.

NOAA and other agencies have been studying how blooms of Pseudo-nitzschia algae have been forming in a large eddy at the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and how blooms spread south along the Washington coast.

Since 1990, the entire coast has been closed three times to digging because domoic acid levels were too high, most recently in 2002-03. There also have been closures of individual beaches because of domoic acid outbreaks.

In one way, it amazes me that the value of the fishery has more than doubled since I did a story in 2005, even though the value then was based on old data.

But anyone who goes to a beach on a decent day knows clam digging is as popular as ever. As many as 30,000 people – that’s the size of University Place – will drive to the beach on a good day in search of clams.

And along with their tubes, shovels, buckets, waders and boots, they pack along a huge appetite, a need for a place to lay their head at night, some place to pick up snacks for the ride home and their wallets.

According to the study, the average clam digging group averages just less than four people. When you calculate the money each group spends on lodging, food, gas and other expenses, the dollars quickly add up. The study shows the average group will spend almost $337 per trip.

When you add it all up, clam diggers spend $13 million directly on clamming in coastal communities, said Dan Huppert, report co-author and professor at the University of Washington School of Marine Affairs.

Once those dollars are spent again via employee wages and store expenditures, the value of the fishery rises to $22 million, Huppert said.

Dan Ayres, the state’s coastal shellfish manager, understands the popularity of the fishery. He grew up along the coast and remembers his father waking him at 5 a.m. to go digging.

Now working for the state, he understands the importance the fishery has for coastal towns.

“One reason we manage the fishery for the winter months is to draw visitors to these communities at time when they don’t have much business,” he said.

Some folks grumble when they tell stories of the days when digging was allowed during warm-weather months.

I admit that digging is easier when the tides fall late in the morning on a warm spring day. But look at the numbers for winter digs, and you can see people are willing to head for the coast when the waves are high, the rain is flying and the wind blowing.

Ayres said the dig last weekend – held in poor weather conditions – still drew about 15,000 diggers.

Those numbers and this study show the state has been correct in using razor clam digs as an economic driver for communities such as Ocean Shores, Long Beach, Westport and Kalaloch.

It also proves that the management of the fishery, in cooperation with tribal partners, has been successful in maintaining this popular fishery.

Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640

Jeff.mayor@thenewstribune.com

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