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The USA Mid-Atlantic Surf Clam/Ocean Quahog Fishery

The Mid-Atlantic surf clam and ocean quahog fishery exists from New England down to the Virginia coast. The fishery targets two species of clams which sometimes have overlapping territories. Both clams are landed whole transported to facilities where they are shucked, cooked and processed into a variety of food items.

The ocean quahog is also known as a mahogany clam, mahogany quahog, black quahog and black clam. Quahogs reach 3-6 inches. The ocean quahog is a slow growing clam that matures in twenty to forty years. Some may live as long as 200 years.

The Atlantic surf clam is harvested commercially off New York, New Jersey Maryland, Virginia and on the Georges Bank. They are also known as a skimmer, hen clam, sea clam, giant clam and bar clam. Surf clams range from 4 to 8 inches in length.

The USA mid-Atlantic offshore surf clam/ocean quahog industry consists of large vessels which pull enormous dredges, equipped with pressurized water jets that blast the bottom to expose clams. With modern boats being 90' and up, many vessels consume around 2000 gallons per trip. These boats operate on a fixed per day catch allocation. According to industry participants, boats that once could catch around 200 bushels of clams per hour are seeing catch rates drop to around half that due to fishing pressure. 

The Mid-Atlantic surf clam and ocean quahog fishery operates under and Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) system. Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) programs are a type of limited access privilege program (LAPP), which provide individual fishermen or corporations the exclusive privilege to harvest a certain percentage of the total allowable catch (TAC) of a fishery. IFQ programs allow individual licenses or "shares" to be bought and sold in the marketplace.

Other IFQ programs implemented in the United States include the South Atlantic wreckfish IFQ (1992), The Alaskan halibut and North Pacific sablefish IFQ (1995), The Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands crab rationalization program (2005) and the Gulf of Mexico Commercial Red Snapper Fishery Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program(2008).