. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. RAKIN' IN THE CLAMS By Jeannie Faris • Photos by Michael Halminski Ke\ JXevin Midgett has one of those old family names that seem to define commercial fishing in North Carolina. For 13 years, he's run the family-owned Hatteras Village Aqua Farm on Highway 12, growing and selling his own clams. It's a good living for growers, who collectively raked $850,000 worth of clams from North Carolina bottomlands in 1994. But clamming is more than a livelihood — it's a way of life. It's a centuries-old tradition on t
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. RAKIN' IN THE CLAMS By Jeannie Faris • Photos by Michael Halminski Ke\ JXevin Midgett has one of those old family names that seem to define commercial fishing in North Carolina. For 13 years, he's run the family-owned Hatteras Village Aqua Farm on Highway 12, growing and selling his own clams. It's a good living for growers, who collectively raked $850,000 worth of clams from North Carolina bottomlands in 1994. But clamming is more than a livelihood — it's a way of life. It's a centuries-old tradition on the coast, a skill passed down for generations. There's a knack to knowing where clams can be found under acres of tidal flats, recognizing the telltale "keyholes" of clams in the sand, detecting the clink and pull of metal tongs on buried shell. So how is a visitor to know any of this? The know-how of harvesting clams is much like the closely guarded secrets of a good fishing hole. Nobody's going to hand them over to virtual strangers. And increasingly, clamming grounds are off-limits to the public. Well, get out your raking gloves. This year, there's a way, and you don't need Midgett, Daniels or Tillett tagged to the end of your name to catch a clam supper for yourself. On May 1, Midgett opened a private clam bed to tourists to test the success of a "you- rake-it" style clamming business on the Outer Banks. This idea, unique to the East Coast, is based on the pick-your-own vegetable patches common to rural crossroads. The project was funded by the National Coastal Resources Research and Development Institute (NCRI) to test the viability of a business that combines competitively priced seafood, an outdoor activity for tourists and easier public access to a long-standing coastal tradition. The pick-your-own venture, if it succeeds on the East Coast, will enhance tourism and harness its power for commercial fishermen, who are searching for economic opportu
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