Concerning your recent article on Pismo clams (“Clam poaching tops Fish and Wildlife-related crimes in SLO County,” Oct. 6), the cause of decline is not an unknown. The following was published in a 1986 paper, “Temporal and spatial patterns in sea otters”:
“Using information available on numbers of otters south of Point San Luis and assumed consumption rates of Pismo clams (80clams/otter/day) it is possible to illustrate the impact otters had on the Pismo clam resource in the Pismo clam area. Even after subtracting for a percentage of otters potentially feeding in nearby rocky habitats, the estimated number of clams consumed still exceeded 700,000 in 1980. This number of clams is more than double the highest yearly clammer take at Pismo Beach during the 1975-1979 period.”
These data indicate that 700,000 Pismo clams would feed only about two dozen sea otters for one year. There are currently more than 3,000 sea otters in California.
While it is not acceptable for people to poach, it is obviously frustrating that sea otters begin to consume clams at approximately 3 inches in size, far smaller than the 4.5 inches required for human use. A similar situation also has occurred with our once abundant abalone fishery. These findings are well researched, published and repeated at Morro Bay and Monterey.
Steve Rebuck
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Oct 13-23, 2022.
Funny, the clams didn’t seem to have any problem before Man found out about them. I’ve seen pictures from the early 1900s of people digging up thousands to use as fertilizer.
Your data is extremely outdated and therefore suspect. And regardless, the otters are eating what they’ve evolved to eat. Humans don’t need clams to survive.