‘Happy as a clam in high water’ or so the saying goes.

The average person does not really think about clams unless they are at a restaurant which serves them in a variety of ways. So I guess it is safe to presume that the average person does not care if clams are ever happy.

I spent a few years in a small New Jersey beach town. The bay side of town was very marshy and it was an ideal location for clams to thrive. People who harvested clams were known as ‘clam diggers.’ When the tide was low and the muddy bottom of the marshy bay was exposed, they would wear heavy socks and walk through the mud. If they felt something hard they would use a small rake and dig it up. If it was a clam it ended up in a pail and eventually at a fish market or restaurant.

There are over 15,000 species of clams found in both salt and fresh water and they can live up to 10 years. Giant clams, which are becoming extinct, can live to 100. Clams feed on tiny organisms that they filter from the water and this
process actually purifies the water they live in.

So clams are good for the environment plus they are delicious, which should make us happy, but what about the clams?
Are they aware that they are being stalked by ‘clam diggers’? Do they sense the approach of feet prodding their environment, the scraping sound of the rake digging up one of their friends and the final plunk as he or she are tossed into the pail? Are they relieved when they are passed by to live another day in the mud?

Only when high tide returns do they have a smile on their face.