Michelle Repetto shucks a hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) using a device borrowed from the VIMS Eastern Shore Laboratory. (Katrina Lohan)
by Katrina Lohan
If you have ever tried to open M. mercenaria, then you can fully appreciate that the folks at the ESL gave us a specially designed apparatus just for shucking clams. Even then, the clams we collected were pretty big, so getting them open was really hard.
A co-worker from the Marine Invasions Lab, Michele Repetto, joined Kristy and I on this trip and she has become a master shucker. Between Kristy and Michele’s excellent shucking capabilities, the large clams didn’t stand a chance. Now the mussels on the other hand presented a separate challenge, which was attempting to get them open without destroying the shells, which we are archiving and will eventually submit to the molluscan collection at the National Museum of Natural History.
While I frequently broke the mussel shells into many pieces, Kristy and Michele had the appropriate finesse to open the mussels without causing massive shell damage. Have to enjoy the challenges of working with different species!
