Oyster Blog — Clams

... accidentally! We've had a few daylight low tides so far this year, and once the sunlight hits the flats the algae starts growing like crazy on our clam nets. Seaweed is algae. And, just in case you might need it, here's an idiot's guide to algae: there's microalgae, which is the kind that oysters eat, and macroalgae, which is the kind that we eat, like kelp, nori, etc. All seaweeds are edible in the sense that they're not toxic, but some are more delicious and digestible than others. Check out this guide to edible seaweed of the Pacific Northwest....

Here we have the inspiration for the movie tremors.  Teredo clams are worm-shaped clams that use shell-shaped jaws to chew through wood.  Because these clams do  look an awful lot like worms, and perhaps because the idea of a wood eating clam is too strange to believe, people refer to these animals as shipworms or termites of the sea. But no. These are marine clams that eat wood, creating something called wormwood. Here's a teredo clam, with its worm-like body and head of shells:  A special enzyme allows the clams to digest cellulose, but most species supplement this wooden diet with planktonic protein. The clams line...

Should you find yourself with a fresh geoduck on your hands, here's what to do. 1. Cut the geoduck out of its shell. Be sure that you get all the tender meat off of the inside of the shell. 2. Remove shell and the guts. Notice the large round thing in the photo below? That's the geoduck's stomach, and if it doesn't turn your stomach, you can add it to chowder or soup. At this point, you may make several interesting discoveries in the pile of geoduck guts, such as a skinny, translucent worm-like thing or a miniature, moving crab....

Geoduck shell photo shoot.