Quahog is probably the oldest one still used and is derived from its use by native Americans.
The name ‘mercenaria’ from the Latin term for money, was given to the clam by a famous biologists, Carl Linnaeus.
Hard clams is found in the northern United States and as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it also is found along the entire Atlantic coast of the United States and its distribution is reported to extend through the Gulf of Mexico.
The hard calm occurs in groups ranging from small patches to extensive beds at intertidal and subtidal depths, from sand to muddy sand sediments.
The hard clam industry is the largest of all the clam species and represents more than 50% of the dockside value of all clams harvested.
These clams are sold in the shell by size. They are graded for increasing size as littleneck, cherrystone, and chowder. There is a large variability in the growth rate of hard clams, they reach commercial size sometime between 2 and 5 years; clams in southern waters grow more quickly.
Hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria)
