EVENTS | DONATE

Barnstable Clean Water Coalition
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Contact Us
  • WHAT WE DO
  • NEWS
  • GET INVOLVED
  • RESOURCES
  • DONATE
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Contact Us
  • WHAT WE DO
  • NEWS
  • GET INVOLVED
  • RESOURCES
  • DONATE
Homepage > Living Laboratory Cape Cod > What We Do At BCWC > What’s Your Preference? Soft-shelled or Hard-shelled Clams?

What’s Your Preference? Soft-shelled or Hard-shelled Clams?

November 26, 2020 In What We Do At BCWC

If you don’t know, that’s normal. There is actually very little difference in taste when preparing a clam based meal. But besides both being bivalve mollusk, there are quite a few differences. Steamers, or Soft-shelled clams, have quite thin, white grey shells. With their oval-like body, they will burrow into the sandy mud of the bays and use a long siphon to filter feed. They thrive in bays because of their abilities to tolerate rapid salinity changes. Quahogs, or hard-shelled clams, on the other hand have a more rounded thick white grey shell with rings on it. They do not burrow as deeply and in fact have two short siphons in order to filter feed. While they also live in bays, they are mostly found in areas where the salinity is lower than the open ocean. Clams along with other filter feeders like oysters do an excellent job at taking in the pollutants us humans put in the water with little to no effect to themselves. While this is amazing, it is still very important to fix the pollution problem in our three bays because we are harming ourselves by eating the clams that are filtering the pollutants. Cleaner water = safe, delicious food!

Previous StoryEelgrass: Where Did it All Go?
Next StoryA Dune’s Duties

Category

  • APCC Cyanobacteria Alerts
  • Books
  • Cape Cod
  • Coalition Quarterly
  • Cranberry Bog Restoration Project
  • DNSI
  • Fall 2020 Newsletter
  • News
  • Partner Projects
  • Shubael Pond Project
  • Summer 2020 Newsletter
  • Three Bays Preservation Newsletter
  • What We Do At BCWC
  • Winter 2021 Newsletter

Recent Posts

Donate   |   Sign up for our E-Mails!
Three Bays Preservation, Inc. dba Barnstable Clean Water Coalition is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. Federal Tax ID#:  04-3338308.

Copyright ©2019 Barnstable Clean Water Coalition, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy | Terms | Sitemap | Site Produced by Coastal Mountain Creative