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Coastal razor clam digging season ends after marine toxin levels increase

The Daily News - 5/12/2017

LONG BEACH - Razor clam digging on Long Beach Peninsula and the other Washington beaches is closed for the season.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced razor clams sampled on Long Beach, Twin Harbors and Mocrocks beaches exceed marine toxin levels set by state public health officials.

"Based on the most recent toxin tests, razor clams will not be safe to eat for the remainder of the month,'' said Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish manager.

Domoic acid levels at Long Beach increased from 19 parts per million on April 23 to 41 parts per million on May 2. Twin Harbors domoic acid level was 36 parts per million.

The safety threshold is less than 20 parts per million.

Razor clams season routinely close by the end of May, when the clams begin to spawn. The next season will begin in the fall, when the older clams have recovered from spawning and a new generation begins to grow behind the sand.

"We'll conduct our annual assessment of clam populations over the summer and hope to open beaches again in September or October,'' Ayres said.

Copalis beach is closed because diggers reached the number of harvestable clams for the season already.

Domoic acid, a natural toxin produced by certain types of marine algae, can be harmful or even fatal if consumed in sufficient quantities. The toxin has posed problems for razor clam and crab fisheries along Washington's coast for the last two years.

Record turnout

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Turnout during the most recent digs on April 26 to May 1 was way up, and digging success was fairly good with 101,179 digger trips coast-wide taking home 1,916,667 razor clams.

"We had a big weekend with some amazing crowds of diggers, and I can honestly say as far back as I can find we broke record single-day crowds."

The 17,784 diggers on Sunday (April 30) at Long Beach on the southern coast was a record breaker and the previous high was in around 13,000 on a single day. The 9,305 diggers at Mocrocks on Saturday (April 29), which is a much smaller beach compared to Long Beach broke a record turnout. The previous all-time high was 8,200.

From April 25-May 1, 59,550 diggers at Long Beach had 1,294,386 clams for 21.7 average (the first 25 clams dug at Long Beach only, elsewhere the limit is 15 clams daily regardless of size or condition is a daily limit); from April 26-30, 12,614 at Twin Harbors had 188,751 for 15.0; on April 28 and 30, 16,956 at Copalis had 254,338 for 15.0; and on April 27 and 29, 12,058 at Mocrocks had 179,192 for 14.9.

A breakdown on day-by-day success at Long Beach was 23.3 on April 26, 25.0 on April 27, 24.2 on April 28, 24.2 on April 29, 15.5 on April 30 and 25.0 on May 1. At Twin Harbors it was 15.0 on April 26, 14.9 on April 27, 14.8 on April 28, 15.0 on April 29 and 15.0 on April 30. At Copalis it was 15.0 on April 28 and 30; and at Mocrocks it was 15.0 on April 27 and 14.8 on April 29.

The total since the season began on Oct. 14 showed 274,173 diggers coast-wide with 4,056,441 clams. A breakdown is 77,778 at Long Beach with 1,555,113 clams for 20.0 clam per person average; 62,893 at Twin Harbors with 834,086 for 13.3; 82,108 at Copalis with 1,040,193 for 12.7; 57,958 at Mocrocks with 686,628 for 11.8; and 637 at Kalaloch with 1,410 for 2.2.