South Carolina Department of Natural Resources officials are trying to figure out what caused thousands of dead clams to wash up on Folly Beach in Charleston. DNR spokesperson Phil Maier says they received a call from a citizen about the clams, so they began an investigation.
What we are seeing is kind of an unusual event. It’s impacting a single species, Mulinia, and it seems to be occurring in a relatively small area.
So, DNR officials are scoping out the beach and testing the waters.
Over the last couple of days we’ve had our researchers out sampling. So, we’ve been looking for things like dissolved oxygen, algae, and looking at the animals themselves, so we can figure out what occurred, what caused the die off.
And, so far:
We’ve not found a ‘smoking gun.’ Dissolved oxygen looked good in that area, both on the beach and near the shore. We’ve found no other clear indication of what’s going on. However, because of the nature of the event, impacting a single species in a specific area, we’re looking most closely at causes that would strike in this manner. Things like parasites, disease, or something related to the biology of this particular animal.
As for any threat, that’s what Maier says they are looking into.
Understanding what the underlying cause is. If it’s simply a natural event that occurs periodically that we don’t necessarily understand, that’s one answer, but we would certainly be interested in finding out if there is something else going on and to make sure there’s not some sort of environmental problem.
Maier says they expect to have some sort of answer concerning what happened to these clams in the next couple of days. He says they have not figured out what it could be, yet.
