Clam-Digging with a Bearbnb Host

 Hullo!!! Sandy Bear here... as a Bearbnb host, we get a lot of guests who come to Nanoose Bay to go clam digging and oyster hunting! I'd never, ever been here, so I thought I would check it out, the better to interact with my guests!

We know the spot along the highway, where people park in the spring and summer. Sometimes there are tonnes of cars lined up here! But today is not bad!!

Then we had to find a little trail down the embankment to the old railroad tracks.

No fear of getting hit by a train along here! This section of the line hasn't been used in decades!

Then we scrambled down another trail to the beach.

We are on the right track! Discarded empty shells line the trail!

And pretty Nootka Rose flowers!

Here's the beach! The best time to come is at super low tide... not just any low tide... super low tide... like 2 ft or less.

As we walked out towards the water, we started seeing little clams. We think this one might be a Butter Clam.

There's a clam airhole!! Some people start digging at these spots! You might find a Butter Clam down there!

And a little dead crab too!

That big, open one is definitely a butter clam.

When you dig here, you have to be careful not to disturb the sea grass... it's part of the habitat you know.

Lots of empty shells and then... we say it... a very weird thing sticking out of the sand...

You you see it??? It kind of looks like a clam but...

When we touched it and gave a tug... it was kind of rough and soft and it pulled back... It's a Geoduck! There's a clam at the end of this siphon, a very big clam.. with a very long siphon. I am not going to post a picture of the gooeyduck (that's how it's pronounced)... but look it up. They are quite the delicacy... we would have needed shovels and fast digging to dig this puppy out!

There are some people over there digging clams... let's go check it out...

They have small rakes and are picking these from the top 6 inches of the rocky sandy here... They are Manila clams...

Farther along, the sand gets even more rocky and there are tonnes of oysters.

We found a Dad and two kids picking oysters!

There sure are a lot here!

Do you like oysters and clams? Well then, this is the place. So many places along the coast suffer from "Red Tide" (algal blooms of dinoflagellates that accumulate in shellfish in the summer months and lead to Paralytic shellfish poisoning). But Nanoose Bay is "usually" toxin free!