On Sunday June 13th, Mike Pinkham–the Gouldsboro shellfish warden–a group of harvesters, and I went out to the mudflats to do some conservation work. This week’s activity was collecting and removing green crabs from a local clamming area, John Small Cove. This activity was part of the harvester’s required conservation time, and I went along to see what some of this work entails and to get to know the local community a little better. In order to be eligible for a clamming license in Gouldsboro, harvesters are required to do at least 10 hours of conservation work.…

The European green crab (Carcinus maenas) arrived in the New York and New Jersey ports in the early 1800s, spread to Casco Bay by the 1890s, and continued to spread northward to Downeast Maine and the Bay of Fundy over the twentieth century (Fulton et al., 2013).  It is a voracious predator, but until recently the crab’s numbers in Maine were kept in check by cold winters. That was enough to make it possible for softshell clams to continue to thrive even though green crabs were eating them.…