In 1976, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission approved regulation changes for the sport harvest of bay clams. The changes were made at the request of the shellfish staff; our concern was the gradual deterioration in the status of the stocks as reflected in annual census work on several key tideflats in Tillamook, Netarts, Yaquina and Siuslaw bays. Public comments during the census taking also suggested.support for regulation change.
Regulation changes approved for the 1977 season included: (1) a reduction of the hardshell bay clam limit from 36 to 20 clams per person; (2) sorting of unbroken hardshell clams was allowed; and (3) an additional bag limit of 36 softshell or other incidental clams was allowed (before 1977, these had to be included in the overall bay clam 36-bag limit).
In 1977 Oregon State Police from Tillamook County questioned the effectiveness of our regulation changes. One officer in particular was unhappy with the sorting provision in the new regulations. He outlined four examples of where he thought the law was being abused;
(1) Broken clams were not being kept.
(2) Clams sorted out by diggers were being picked up by younger family members and there fore they were not digging their own.
(3) Seagulls were eating the sorted clams before they were able to reburrow into the substrate.
(4) Sorted clams were put in piles and many did not reburrow back into the substrate
This, report summarizes the results of our clam census surveys and addresses the effects of our regulation changes. Due to the volume of data collected during the 1978 season, only data collected from Garibaldi Flat of Tillamook Bay is presented
