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Brian Beal: 'Climate Change from a Downeast Clam's Perspective'
Sun, Jan 26
|Eastport Arts Center
Sunday Afternoons at the Arts Center, an Eastport winter tradition, features diverse, interactive and casual weekly presentations. January events, including this program, are held at Eastport Port Authority, 141 Water Street, Eastport, during floor refinishing at EAC.
Time & Location
Jan 26, 2025, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Eastport Arts Center, 36 Washington St, Eastport, ME 04631, USA
About the event
As part of Eastport Arts Center’s winter Sunday series, marine ecologist Brian Beal will present ‘Climate Change from a Downeast Clam’s Perspective’ at 3 pm, Sunday, January 26, at the Eastport Port Authority building.
As shell middens and other archeological evidence show, soft-shell clams have been consumed by humans along the Downeast coast for 10,000 years. Commercial landings data for clams was first collected in the 1880s when steamers became as popular to eat as they had been for bait for the offshore cod and haddock fisheries.
Over the ensuing ~145 years, there have been two intervals during which clam landings have dropped drastically over a relatively short time—1950-1959 and 1977-1990. Both correlate with unexpected increases in seawater temperatures in the Gulf of Maine that led to population explosions of the clam’s #1 predator: the invasive European green crab.
Unlike after the first major decline in the 1950s, there has…