ECOLOGICAL DATA
Distribution: scattered on tide flats along coast, but
not abundant in any one location.
Habitat: soft, sand-mud substrates of tide flats; abundant in eelgrass beds;
associated with butter and littleneck clams; shallow burrow or may occur on surface; moves
horizontally across beach, does not remain in same burrow;
Tidal elevation: high intertidal to 30 m subtidal depth; most common in
intertidal or shallow subtidal.
Food: suspension feeder; phytoplankton and detritus.
Predators: sea stars, crabs, flatfish and birds; easy prey since they occur on
surface of tide flats.
GROWTH RATE
Moderately rapid growth; 60 mm in 3 yr; sexually mature at 2
yr.
FISHERY
Incidental commercial catch but important in Native fishery;
does not occur in large enough numbers to support commercial fishery; sewage pollution and
paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) have closed large areas of coast to harvesting.
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REFERENCES
Bernard, F.R. 1983. Catalogue of the living bivalvia of the eastern Pacific Ocean:
Bering Strait to Cape Horn. Can. Spec. Publ. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 61: 39.
Bourne, N. 1986. Intertidal clams, p. 22-31. In G.S. Jamieson and K. Francis
[ed.] Invertebrate and marine plant resources of British Columbia. Can. Spec. Publ. Fish.
Aquat. Sci. 91.
Gallucci, V.F., and B.B. Gallucci. 1982. Reproduction and ecology of the
hermaphroditic cockle Clinocardium nuttallii (Bivalvia: Cardiidae) in Garrison Bay.
Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 7: 137-145.
Jamieson, G.S. 1986. Paralytic shellfish poisoning, p. 44-46. In G.S. Jamieson
and K. Francis [ed.] Invertebrate and marine plant resources of British Columbia. Can.
Spec. Publ. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 91.
Kozloff, E.N. 1983. Seashore life of the northern Pacific coast. Douglas &
McIntyre, Vancouver: 290.
Quayle, D.B. 1978. The intertidal bivalves of British Columbia. B.C. Prov. Mus. Handb.
17: 54-55.
Quayle, D.B., and N. Bourne. 1972. The clam fisheries of British Columbia. Fish. Res.
Board Can. Bull. 179: 56-58.
Ricketts, E.F., J. Calvin, and J.W. Hedgpeth. 1985. Between Pacific tides. 5th ed.
Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, Calif.: 332-334.
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