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News Feature

Brooklin
Originally published in The Weekly Packet, June 7, 2012
Brooklin students get taste of clamming

Brooklin students clamming

Tom Hardy (right), former chairman of the shellfish conservation committee, advises eighth-grader Rory Bradford on how to use a clam hoe.

Photo by Jonathan Thomas

Clam warden Sam Friend (right) talks about clam regulations with a group of students.

Photo by Jonathan Thomas

by Jonathan Thomas

Thirty-one students from the Brooklin School, joined by five home-schooled students, spent much of their Friday morning, May 25, on the Naskeag Point clam-flats learning about clams and how to dig them. (During the previous week, Town Clerk Gigi Hardy had gone to the school to issue complimentary junior recreational licenses to interested students.)

After getting off their bus in the Naskeag Point parking lot, the students listened to David Tarr’s introductory remarks about clam flat management, closed areas, and pollution. Tarr is chairman of the Brooklin Conservation Shellfish Committee, the group that organized the event.

The students then split up into groups that rotated between more instruction and actual digging. Biologist Alison Dibble, a member of the shellfish committee, displayed various marine life specimens she had brought with her. Clam warden Sam Friend talked about various regulations that clammers need to follow.

Out on the flats, experienced clam diggers showed the students how to select the best spots to dig and the most effective ways to handle a clam hoe when digging.

At the end of the session and before getting back on their bus, the students got to enjoy the fruits of their labors as the clams they had just dug were steamed and served with melted butter.

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