Rotarians Hope to Rescue Clams Threatened by Dredging Project

An ambitious group of Rotarians is planning a massive clam dig on Port Hueneme Beach next Saturday to save thousands of Pismo clams otherwise doomed to be buried alive beneath tons of sand dredged from nearby Channel Islands Harbor.

“It would be a waste. They would all be killed,” said retired teacher Paul Sturm of Port Hueneme, chief organizer of the clam lift.

Sturm hopes to amass a platoon of volunteers armed with spades and shovels to help him scoop the clams to safety a couple of miles down the beach.

Beginning at noon Nov. 21, volunteers will pluck the clams from their beds a few inches below the surface, place them in buckets, and load them on a waiting caravan of fat-tired vehicles.

The California Assn. of Four-Wheel Drive Clubs has lined up five trucks to move the mollusks en masse. Members of the Rotary Club of Port Hueneme have also offered to help. Sturm is the chapter’s president-elect.

California Department of Fish and Game officials vow to be present to supervise the collecting, the replanting--and just to make sure the smaller clams don’t end up in chowder. They said their financially strapped agency could never attempt to handle so many clams without volunteer support.

“The public is really interested in things like this,” said Pete Haaker, a marine biologist for the department. “It’s a natural. Everything came together beautifully.”

On Monday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin dredging up to 1.8 million cubic yards of sand from the entrance of Channel Islands Harbor and using it to build up Port Hueneme Beach.

Usually, little concern is given to Pismo clams on Port Hueneme Beach because their numbers have remained small since heavy storms in the early 1980s virtually wiped them out.

But this year, the Pismo clams have come back strong, numbering about 100 per square meter, according to Department of Fish and Game officials.

If the sand were allowed to be dumped on the beach--as deep as 16 feet in some places--the clams would perish, officials said.

“No clam would be able to dig out,” said Kristine Barsky, marine biologist and a Department of Fish and Game official.

Sturm discovered the large number of clams when he was body surfing last summer. Familiar with the biennial dredging project, he contacted state officials and asked if the bivalves could be saved. The department surveyed the area on Monday and verified the large numbers of clams living in the area.

However tempting they might be to chowder aficionados , most of these year-old clams are a few years and a few inches away from the legal harvesting size. Pismo clams must be 4 1/2 inches to be legal and Department of Fish and Game officials report widespread poaching of undersized clams.

“There are wardens patrolling the coast and we depend on people calling in,” Haaker said. “There probably are a few legal ones, but we don’t encourage people to look because the clams can get broken by shovels.”

Matt Shun, an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is planning to drive two hours from his residence in Rancho Cucamonga to volunteer in the clam dig. “I know we won’t be able to save all of them,” Shun said. “If some of them are around until they are legal size, people can harvest them and that would be good.”