Some of the larger species, as the round clam, or quahog, are valued for food.

It is also known as the Northern quahog, round clam, or chowder clam.

This rounded clam has no radial ribs and is commonly called the bent-nosed clam.

Wim said, 'There are long clams, quahog, or round clams, razor clams, surf clams, single shells, and blood clams.'

"Certainly the numbers for hard clams have been bad in the last several years," he said.

Today, Hard clams are the bay's principal resource, but this was not always the case.

The Narragansetts would use the hard clam for food and ornaments.

In Vietnam, these hard clams are eaten boiled, steamed, or roasted.

The hard clam has many alternative common names.

"Scallop sets are down, the hard clams just aren't setting.

Raritan Bay is thought to have the richest base of hard clams in the country, maybe the world.

At one point in time, Great South Bay provided many of the hard clams consumed throughout the region and even the country.

The New York catch produced $8.9 million, making it the state's second most valuable marine product, after hard clams.

"With hard clams," said Mr. Smith, "the shelf life is shortened and the meat weights are dropped."

The cownose ray feeds upon clams, oysters, hard clams and other invertebrates.

The Biology of the Hard Clam.

Hard clams fell by 93 percent in the past 25 years and, despite upward spikes in 1994 and last year, scallops have not fared much better.

In-shore hard clams, used for clams on the half shell, on the other hand, account for less than 1 percent of the state's total catch.

Eventually, the term "littleneck" or "littleneck clam" came to be used as a size category for all hard clams, regardless of origin.

At the Noank cooperative, for example, breeders are working specifically with a type of hard clam species that grows a characteristic stripe on its shell.

The Eastern Shore Laboratory was established in 1962, and jumpstarted Virginia's large hard clam industry.

WHEN most Long Island baymen harvest hard clams it is a simple and laborious process.

They also call for studying how to revive finfishing and shellfishing in waters where hard clam harvests are at historic lows.

Stress syndrome in hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria.

Oyster Bay produces up to 90% of the oysters and 40% of the hard clams harvested in New York State.

Mr. Gall said that that before the transplant program was halted, hard clams were "the most profitable marine resource in New York State."

First identified in Hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria it is thought to play an important role in cardiac activity regulation.

Richard Knapp of Point Pleasant was busy just after dawn one recent day sorting hard clams he had harvested from Reedy Creek.

The farming of hard clams, oysters and fish will be promoted at a new research and development institution scheduled to be dedicated this week in Cape May, officials say.

Larger chowder clams are not typically used for steaming.

The big chowder clams, which must be steamed and chopped, are the grown-up version.

It is also known as the Northern quahog, round clam, or chowder clam.

Be happy as a clam: Fresh seafood doesn't get thriftier than blue mussels and chowder clams.

Above that are the cherrystones, and the largest are called quahogs or chowder clams.

But he said seeding the bay bottom with reproductively potent large chowder clams should produce an abundance of larvae.

Using oversize chowder clams as his canvas, he builds intricate dioramas out of carved driftwood on the half shell.

Larger cherrystone and quahog or chowder clams can be chopped to use in soups, sauces and stuffings.

Then I stopped at the Seafood Shop in Wainscott, still without a plan, and bought a pint of shucked chowder clams.

Primary ingredients are bacon, onion, chowder clams, potatoes, pepper, celery powder, parsley, crab spice (Old Bay), asparagus, light cream, tomatoes cut & seeded.

You could earn $25 for digging 500 littleneck clams, a bushel's worth, or $5 for the same amount of chowder clams, which could only be used in soup.

Thanks to its coastal setting, Rhode Island has a rich seafood heritage, much of it centering on quahogs, which are large chowder clams, usually measuring four or five inches across.

This dish, a special for the evening, included monster chowder clams (we spotted one about six inches long) that were not only as chewy as rubber bands but also full of sand.

Much more lively were the plate of peppery jerk chicken and beef, and the plate of baked chowder clams stuffed with garlic, bread crumbs, leeks, carrots and shallots.

We also liked the jumbo stuffed clams: two big chowder clam shells filled with a chunky, tasty mix of baby shrimp, crab meat, scallops and minced clams with not too many bread crumbs.

Many types of clams can be used for clam chowder, but the quahog, a hard shelled clam also known as a chowder clam, is often used because the long cooking time softens its tougher meat.

Creating a spawning sanctuary by placing chowder clams in piles in a closed area so that males and females are in close proximity can also assist in reproduction, and planting seed clams evenly helps guard against predators.

Last weekend, he took about 20 co-workers from New York City and New Jersey out to dig for steamers and chowder clams, net blue-claw crabs and fire up the barbecue for an old-fashioned bay shack fish fry.

A flashing neon sign proclaimed the ground-floor restaurant UNCLE CHOWDERS CLAM BAR while a mollusk with a top hat and cane and pink neon smile did a fluttering dance on stick-thin legs.

Stress syndrome in hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria.

First identified in Hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria it is thought to play an important role in cardiac activity regulation.

The effects of the filter feeding clam Mercenaria mercenaria on carbon cycling in experimental marine mesocosms.

Species used to make wampum include the highly prized quahog clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) which produces the famous purple colored beads.

The family includes some species that are important commercially, such as (in the USA) the hard clam or quahog, Mercenaria mercenaria.

In culinary use, within the eastern coast of the United States, the term "clam" most often refers to the hard clam Mercenaria mercenaria.

Although this clam is sweeter in taste than the northern quahog, Mercenaria mercenaria, it is a lot smaller, and is rarely eaten.

The Connecticut clam - Mercenaria mercenaria - is known as a quahog throughout New England, but a hard clam farther south.

Filter feeders, like the hard-shelled clam (Mercenaria mercenaria - no reflection on the noble character and taste of this self-sufficient bivalve), are especially vulnerable.

The hard-shell clam is known locally as the northern quahog (or Mercenaria mercenaria, from the days when the Indians used the shells as wampum).

Effects of intensive fishing effort on the population structure of quahogs, Mercenaria mercenaria (Linnaeus 1758) in Narragansett Bay.

Quahog Parasite Unknown (QPX) is a parasite that affects Mercenaria mercenaria.

The channeled whelk (Busycotypus canaliculatus) and the quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria) were used to make white and purple traditional patterns.

Identification and expression of differentially expressed genes in the hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria, in response to quahog parasite unknown (QPX).

Sewant or suckauhock beads are the black or purple shell beads made from the quahog or poquahock clamshell, Mercenaria mercenaria.

The uptake of dissolved free amino acids by northern quahogs, Mercenaria mercenaria and its relative importance to organic nitrogen deposition in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island.

Gonadal cycle of northern quahogs, Mercenaria mercenaria (Linne, 1758), from fished and non-fished subpopulations in Narragansett Bay.

Some species of clams, particularly Mercenaria mercenaria, were in the past used by the Algonquin of Eastern North America to manufacture wampum, a type of shell money.

The genus Mercenaria includes the quahogs, Mercenaria mercenaria, the northern quahog or hard clam, and M. campechiensis, the southern quahog.

It is an important predator of the quahog, Mercenaria mercenaria, in Narragansett Bay, and of the barnacle Balanus improvisus in Delaware Bay.

Dreibelbis, Dana E., "The Use of Microstructural Growth Patterns of Mercenaria Mercenaria to Determine the Prehistoric Seasons of Harvest at Tuckerton Midden, Tuckerton, New Jersey," thesis, Princeton University, 1978.

In Mercenaria mercenaria, FMRFamide has been isolated and demonstrated to increase both the force and frequency of the heartbeat through a biochemical pathway that is thought to involve the increase of cytoplasmic cAMP in the ventricular region (Higgins et al., 1978).