THE PREMATURE END to razor clam season at Kalaloch could hardly be labeled a surprise.
As early as January, Olympic National Park coastal ecologist Steven Fradkin had voiced concerns about the Olympic National Park beach’s clam populations.
And after diggers had little success for the third straight set of digs in late February, an announcement closing razor clam harvesting for the rest of the 2010-11 season wasn’t too far behind.
With digs averaging at or below two clams per digger during each of the past five harvest dates (the daily limit is 15), park biologists had seen enough to conclude the population was in decline.
Now, the question is why Kalaloch — the most protected of the five beaches that open to razor clam harvests in the state — continues to see its clam cohorts fluctuate so dramatically?
The answer is debatable depending upon who you ask, with anything from storm surges to the presence of pathogens to over harvest getting the blame.
Fradkin, for one, points to the continued presence of nuclear inclusion X (NIX) — a shellfish disease fatal to razor clams, but not harmful to humans — as a major factor in Kalaloch’s clam volatility.
“There is certainly something suggesting that is what its going on,” Fradkin said, “that NIX is an agent as to what’s going on at Kalaloch.”
Fradkin has conducted a study of NIX and how it operates within Kalaloch’s environment, particularly in regards to razor clams, since 2008.
In that time, between 95 to 100 percent of the razor clam population has been infected with NIX.
In July 2010, the last period for which data was available, approximately 95 percent were infected.
Those numbers differ quite a bit from the limited amount of historical sampling that had been done concerning NIX in the past, according to Fradkin.
“It does not appear that those levels are natural levels,” Fradkin said, “so it appears there is something going on.”
Park biologists saw a similar trend in 2006-07, the last time Kalaloch’s razor clam season was cut short because of poor harvest numbers.
The annual summer stock assessment done later that year backed up the park’s assertion that the beach’s clams had taken a serious hit.
It wasn’t until the fall of 2009 that Kalaloch re-opened to razor clam harvesting, once its populations were deemed healthy enough for harvest.
How long it might take for digging to return this time around is anyone’s guess.
Fradkin wouldn’t rule out the chance that shovels could pierce Kalaloch’s pristine sands sometime next fall.
“I think there’s a really good chance it will open up next year,” Fradkin said. “The few clams that people have been getting are in the four-inch range or something like that, so that cohort we’ve been following for a while is still there.”
The biggest decided factor will be the total clam numbers and size distribution.
In 2008, for example, Kalaloch had a good number of clams, but because few were of adult size, the beach never opened to digging in the 2008-09 season.
If such were the case again this summer, digging would likely be postponed for another year.
“In order to make harvest decisions for next year, we need to get much better information on what the status of that stock is,” said Fradkin, referring to the summer assessment.
At this point, “We’re more concerned about right now, what’s going on this year,” he said.
“There will be ample time to make sober, rational decisions about harvest next year.”
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column regularly appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.
