Tag Archives: clam

Happy as a clam! Falling in love with Kodiak Island.

Christine Bassett joins us from the University of Alabama’s Department of Geological Sciences, where she is a graduate student. Check out the Aleutian Islands Working Group feature on her research here.

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Christine with her clam harvest

As a geologist, I am studying how butter clam (Saxidomus gigantea) shell chemistry and growth might help archaeologists to take a peek at past environmental conditions in the North Pacific Ocean. Clams are sensitive to changes in water conditions, and they record these changes in their shells – so the shells in archaeological sites around Kodiak may be the key to understanding ancient environments! I came to Kodiak, Alaska to collect live butter clams from several sites, and I will look for differences in how the shells are growing in each location.

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Archaeological butter clam from the Uyak Site on Kodiak Island.

I grew up in central Georgia, so before coming to Kodiak I had never been clamming. I knew the types of environments where butter clams are most likely to grow and I knew how to identify butter clams, but finding them was a challenge. During my week on Kodiak, I learned by making connections and working with clamming veterans from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the University of Alaska. At low tide, they showed me how to dig and then rake back the sand and gravel to uncover groups of clams…and eventually I collected more than 120 clams in just three beach visits! I also took temperature and salinity measures at each site so I can connect the shell growth to the environmental conditions.

DSCN3468I will take these clams back to the University of Alabama, where I’ll analyze them over the next year. My fieldwork on Kodiak has been a huge success, and I can’t wait to come back to this spectacular place.