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Hydraulic pumps shown here were growing increasingly popular for clam harvesting in California in the past five years. The California Fish and Game Commission voted this week to permanently ban their use in clam harvesting after increasing overharvesting incidents. (California Department of Fish and Wildlife)
The mouth of Tomales Bay in western Marin County in 2006. (Frankie Frost/Marin Independent Journal)
Clams are lined in the back of a California Fish and Game Department warden’s truck after being confiscated on Tomales Bay near Lawson’s Landing in the summer of 2021. State wildlife officials say they have seen an uptick in overharvesting as more people use hydraulic pumps, which the state decided to permanently ban this week. (California Department of Fish and Wildlife photo)
Clam diggers in Tomales Bay and throughout California have been banned from using water pumps that state officials say put clam stocks at risk and fuel black market sales.
The California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday to indefinitely extend the emergency ban it adopted in early 2021 on the use of hydraulic pumps for clam harvesting. The hand-powered pumps, often operated by two people, essentially work to liquify the sand, allowing people to harvest clams found at greater depths and collect them faster compared to using a shovel.
State wildlife officials noticed the pumps have become more popular in the last six years. A survey of Tomales Bay in spring 2019 found that 85% of the harvested clams were harvested using the pumps.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife environmental scientist Ian Kelmartin said state wardens have been citing more and more people for overharvesting clams and found some were even selling the poached clams to restaurants through the black market.
“We don’t know what that means for clam stocks without further study,” Kelmartin said. “It allows for easier poaching and folks, in general, seem to be content with the tools they have and the limits that are set for the fishery. It made sense for us to go forward and make this regulation permanent.”
In addition to banning the pumps, the rule also prohibits anyone from possessing a hydraulic pump within 100 yards of an area where marine invertebrates can be harvested. Clam diggers would also be required to keep their catch in their own containers and not mix them all into the same container.
The ban does not apply to tools such as clam guns, which don’t use pressurized water. In addition to clams, the ban also applies to using the pumps to harvest sand crabs and shrimp.
The use of the hydraulic pumps had been an issue for several years at popular clam digging areas on the mudflats of northern Tomales Bay. Lawson’s Landing co-owner Mike Lawson said he has seen people carrying away as much as four times the state harvesting limits for clams after just a few hours.
“Each person would have buckets and buckets,” Lawson said.
Similar issues were occurring in other clam digging locations such as Bodega Bay, Maverick’s Beach and Humboldt Bay, Kelmartin said.
While it might be more difficult to dig for the clams, Lawson said that is the way it should be.
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Samantha Murray, president of the California Fish and Game Commission, said on Wednesday that an ongoing issue will be how well state wardens will be able to enforce the ban.
Rachel Clyde of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin told the commission that the ban would “protect crucial species such as eelgrass, prevent unsustainable extraction and protect from overharvesting of intertidal species.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to conduct more surveys of clam stocks and clam harvesting this summer.
While the state could reverse the ban in the future, Kelmartin said surveys conducted by the state last summer found the prohibition was popular. Of 825 clam diggers who were surveyed, the state found 55% supported a ban as opposed to 19% who supported allowing hydraulic pumps but with the possibility of lower harvesting limits.
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