The Soft-Clam ShellThe soft-clam shell is found in the Western Atlantic as far as the Artic regions and as far south as Virginia, being most plentiful off the coasts of New England, New Jersey and Virginia.
In New England, soft-shell clams are harvested when the tide is low by digging into the mud with the short handled clam hoe and removing them by hand.
In the Chesapeake Bay area clams are harvested from boats using water jet dredges and escalator. They are placed in bags or basket and brought to the processing plant, where they are washed with sea water and sorted according to the size.
Specimen 3 in. (7.6 cm) in length or less are usually cooked by steaming. The larger size clams are removed from the shell by hand and placed in metal containers, after which the containers are refrigerated by being surrounding with crushed ice.
In this form, they are shipped to restaurants to be served as a breaded deep fat fried product. Soft-shell clams may be removed from restricted areas and depurated.
The Soft-Clam Shell
