Quahog Profile
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009Quahog (pronounce KWA-hog)
No, it’s not a made-up word to give you more points in Scrabble. The Quahog is a mollusk found buried in sandy areas in the North Atlantic ocean. They also go by the names hard shell, steamer, or cherrystone clams. Northern American Indians used them for food, ornamentation, and currency. It is rumored that the quahog helped the pilgrims fight off starvation during the lean times. The Northern Quahog has a purple-tinted shell and eats plankton.
The hunt for a quahog can be a pleasant experience. You wade up to your waist, digging around with your toes until you feel the clam. After many disappointments of pulling up nothing but rocks, you eventually get the feel for it and get to bring home dinner.
Due to commercial overfishing, their numbers are diminishing close to the coast. Some populations may not rebound for decades because the quahog have a very slow reproductive rate. If allowed to mature, quahogs can live over 200 years! Now that’s an OLD clam!