Razor clam digging will resume Friday on Clatsop County’s 18-mile ocean beach following a seasonal closure in July and many months of dangerously high acid levels.
Nearly a year after digging closed last Oct. 30, biologists now say not only are domoic acid levels well below the danger point, but clams are the most abundant since the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife began keeping counts in 2004.
“Extremely high juvenile recruitment and good survival rates of both juvenile and mature clams over the 2020-21 winter should lead to a very promising season,” reads the agency’s news release. “This year’s population has a large number of mature clams that average over four inches with a tremendous number of juvenile clams under three-and-a-half inches.”
Diggers must dig their own clams, have their own container and can only keep the first 15 clams, regardless of size or condition.
Low tides offer the best digging, but minus tide series for October occur early and late.
-- Bill Monroe for The Oregonian/OregonLive
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