u/ktula

I went to Quilcene Bay Tidelands and harvested a bunch of Manila clams. However, I have not been able to get them to purge since. I have been harvesting clams for many years and I have never had a similar issue with clams harvested from other beaches in the Puget Sound.

Last year, I harvested Manila clams from the same Quilcene Bay Tidelands beach and none of them purge. Back then, I thought perhaps they might have died during the journey back to Seattle as the bucket - with a portable aquarium pump aerating the sea water from the beach - was in the trunk of my wife's car, the first time we used her car for that purpose. But it's happening again so I don't think the clams were dead because I cooked one of them Saturday evening and the shells opened as one assume that would only happen to a live clam. The water temperature in the bucket is now almost 56 degrees and there is no evidence any of them have purged - each time I opened the lid to take a peek inside, I didn't see any siphon - because the water is still debris-free and clear.

Any idea what's going on?

Update:

Replacing the seawater with a 1/3 cup of salt per gallon of water mixture did the trick. Some of the clams started to purge soon after.