By David Harry

Staff Writer

Ed Obar said the gnats were aggressive. Terry Twomey said his right hip was a bit sore.

Both said they were happy to be back digging as clamming areas in Scarborough were partially reopened July 30.

A combination of the algal bloom called red tide and an inundation of rain caused the closure since early summer of shellfish grounds throughout Maine. Scarborough Harbor Master Dave Corbeau, who said he has been stationed in town for 13 years, called the closure “the longest a lot of us have seen.”

The reopening of the clam flats is limited, essentially confined to a line across the confluence of the Libby, Nonesuch and Scarborough rivers and extending to the mouth of the Nonesuch River, and limited to harvesting soft-shell clams, Corbeau said.

News of the reopening brought a crowd, Corbeau said.

“They stood around because they knew something was opening,” he said.

On July 31, available areas were open for the whole day and remained open throughout the weekend and early this week.

Twomey and Obar are commercial clammers by trade, two of 25 who currently hold residential commercial shell fishing licenses in town. Obar said he has made clamming a full-time job this year. Twomey said he has been clamming full-time since 1976.

Obar’s day began early Monday; Scarborough clammers are allowed to go to work a half hour before sunrise by town ordinance and low tide was just after 4 a.m.

By 8 a.m. Monday, Obar had returned from raking  clams in tidal areas around  Libby River, essentially across from Pine Point boat landing.

He estimated he caught about 75 pounds of clams, dug from the sand with a rake, the only tool allowed by ordinance for clamming.

Obar likened clam digging to digging for potatoes.

“It’s really hard work,” he said. “The gnats are just like fog sometimes.”

Obar said three hours before and after low tides are the best times to scan the sand for oval-shaped holes that indicate clams may lurk underneath.

“Some days those holes just don’t show,” Obar said

Twomey said he began clamming when he moved to Scarborough from southern Florida.

“You can be independent. The next thing I knew, I loved it,” he said.

His love of clamming has been passed on to his son Evan, who at 17 holds one of the nine student licenses available to residents between ages 12 and 22.

Twomey recalls years when closures were limited to specific areas instead of the entire coast and clamming in rainstorms that would lead to closures now.

Darcie Couture, who directs biotoxin testing for the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said the shell fishing areas have been closed this year because of red tide and wet weather.

She explained the conditions come from opposite directions. Red tide is caused when warm weather creates an abundant growth of a phytoplankton called alexandrium. The microscopic creature occurs naturally in salt water and is eaten by shellfish.

However, alexandrium emit a toxin that can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning when it accumulates in high levels in the tissue of shellfish then eaten by humans.

Couture said the poisoning causes tingling, nausea, headaches and possibly paralysis of the lungs. There is no known antidote to the poisoning, Couture said.

Just as it appeared the red tide might be ebbing locally, the clam flats were closed again because of heavy rains – a flood tide. This time the flow came from inland sources;  Couture said contaminants from sources such as outdated septic systems also lodged in the tissue of shellfish.

Eventually, the tissues are cleared as shellfish eat uncontaminated organisms, but purging could take two weeks as water and shellfish must be tested.

Corbeau said Couture’s commitment to thorough and repeated testing led to reopening of clam flats.

“Our river is opening because of her sampling up the river,” Corbeau said.

Corbeau and local clammers have assisted in the testing, he said, by digging at local flats to provide samples Couture uses. 

The restart of clamming season was aided by two low tides in the hours clammers could dig, but Corbeau said losing the month of July will be hard to overcome.

Twomey has been able to sell lobsters at Two Tides Seafood, the retail store he owns on Route 114.

Obar found odd jobs on land such as flooring work and spent time with his 12-year-old son while clam flats were closed.

Couture, Corbeau, Obar and Twomey all emphasized the fresh catches are safe.

“We have a thorough, stringent testing program,” Couture said.

Twomey, who said the clamming has been pretty fair, added his perspective.

“There isn’t a clammer who wants to get anyone sick,” Twomey said.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219