Bivalves · Venerida · Mactridae

Atlantic Surf Clam

Spisula solidissima

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The largest bivalve on the Atlantic coast of North America, with shells exceeding 20 cm. It lives just below the surface of wave-swept sandy bottoms and filters phytoplankton. It supports one of the most valuable shellfish fisheries in the United States, worked with hydraulic dredges.

Size

10 cm – 22 cm

Lifespan

30 years

Diet

Omnivore

Combines animal and plant food depending on availability.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

OceanOmnivore Colonial Ocean Mollusc

3countries 14parks 7dive sites

Fun facts

Its shells record annual growth rings that make it possible to date individuals of more than thirty years and to reconstruct ocean temperatures in past decades.
It lives up to thirty years, a notable lifespan for a shelf-dwelling clam.
It supports one of the most valuable shellfish fisheries on the east coast of the United States, and is the clam that goes into clam chowder and fried clam strips.
Its population is shifting northwards and into deeper water as the north-west Atlantic warms, one of the best-documented cases of a fishery resource relocating because of climate.
It is sensitive to thermal stress: warm summers cause die-offs at the southern limit of its range.