Every year from the beginning of June,
One grows in Jimo
Purple blood clams in the tidal flats of T-shaped Bay,
It's time for the ripe harvest season.
Every morning the sky just brightened, taking advantage of the tide to recede,
The fishermen's sisters-in-law took their tools,
Together, they came to the mudflats to catch blood clams.
Recently, this reporter drove more than 200 miles to the T-shaped bay beach in WangGezhuang Village, Tianheng Town, Jimo District, and witnessed the process of fishermen catching blood clams. Because this blood clam has extremely high requirements for the growing environment, the yield is small, but the taste is extremely delicious. Unlike ordinary clams, this blood clam will emit a purple-red liquid after opening, which is extremely nutritious and is called "bleeding clams" by local fishermen.
Scene: Half-day fishing of 5 pounds of "blood clams"
Because the catch of blood clams is in time for the tide to recede, the fishermen have to get up at 5 o'clock every morning to prepare, and the time to catch is only a few hours. Early yesterday morning, Yu Shenfang, a fisherman who lives in Wanggezhuang Village, Tianheng Town, Jimo District, together with several sisters-in-law from the same village, went to the top of the tidal flats after a full-scale armed campaign, walked along the breeding trail in the mudflat into the depths of the tidal flats, and began to be busy catching blood clams.
The reporter noted that this beach is located in the T-shaped bay of Jimo and Haiyang, at the mouth of the Wulong River, and the sedimentation of many years has formed a thick silt mudflat, and the environment here is very clean and beautiful, which is an excellent home for many small seafood to grow. The blood clam is one of the more special seafood. Sister-in-law Yu and several fishermen stopped on the tidal flats about two miles from the coast, holding a basket in one hand, and began to search back and forth into the silt with the other hand, and after about a few minutes, several thumb-sized blood clams appeared in front of them. Just like that, back and forth, more than an hour later, the blood clams had covered the bottom of the basket.
Yu Shenfang said that it starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 10 o'clock. Just keep fishing in the mud, and when it's good, you can dig up to several pounds. Together with another sister Wang, she spent about 4 hours harvesting about 5 pounds of blood clams each, which was already a good harvest. The reporter saw that there were more than 20 fishermen's sisters-in-law who fished blood clams on the beach that day, and in half a day, the number of blood clams caught by each person was basically the same, and the combined output was only more than 100 catties.
Narration: Catching blood clams requires empirical skill
Yu Shenfang, a fisherman with 20 years of experience in blood clam fishing, introduced that unlike ordinary clams, blood clams grow in mudflats, and they are parasitic in crab holes, on the surface, there is no technology for digging blood clams, in fact, there is no long-term accumulation of experience and skills, and it is impossible to dig blood clams.
Yu Shenfang said that when the tide receded, the tidal flats in the T-shaped Bay area of Jimotian Hengzhen became a field of hope. To dig up blood clams, you need to wear rubber rain boots, wear a turban, hold a basket, first look at the eyesight, see the crab hole on the beach, you must immediately bend down, put your hand into the mudflat of about 5 to 10 cm on the beach, and quickly grope forward to find. When the hand encounters a hard object, it is likely to encounter a rare blood clam, then it is necessary to quickly raise your hand and grab the blood clam in your hand. If you have long experience, after the hand encounters a blood clam in the mudflat, it will not immediately close, but continue to search, waiting for the hand to catch a few blood clams before closing, so that it will harvest more in a short period of time. Every time I watch a small, black-shelled blood clam dug out of the mudflat, the fisherman's sister-in-law will be very excited, and then simply washed and put into the basket.
Another fisherman's sister-in-law said that due to the small production of blood clams, the price is relatively expensive, and the blood clams they catch every day never worry about sales, and the blood clams that are dug up and landed are directly taken away by some southern customers, and only a small amount flows into the fishermen's restaurants in Qingdao. In half a day, the blood clams harvested by each of them can generally sell for about 200 yuan. From June until autumn, except for extremely hot weather, blood clams need to "sleep in summer", and other times on this beach are the seasons for catching blood clams.
Survey: There is no precedent for breeding in a special growing environment
According to local fishermen, in addition to the size, color and frequently eaten clams of this clam are very different, the most unique of which is that this clam has a red flesh and can secrete a liquid like blood, which is called "blood clam" by the locals. "This clam will shed juice like blood as soon as it breaks its shell." A fisherman surnamed Wang said that he opened a blood clam with a knife, and immediately a purple-red liquid flowed out. According to reports, the blood clam is a unique product of T-shaped Bay, named because the flesh juice is like blood. In addition, blood clams are very small, slightly larger than peanuts and rice grains. And the shell is black, which is very different from other clam colors. However, blood clams are grown in a natural wild environment and have not been artificially farmed, so the taste is very delicious.
"There have also been attempts by southerners to breed blood clams, but they have not succeeded." According to local fishermen, due to the rarity of blood clams, the price is generally between 40 and 60 yuan per kilogram, so some southerners have also brought the caught blood clams back to the southern breeding pond for temporary breeding, but because the blood clams have extremely high requirements for the growth environment and the mortality rate is too high, they have not been successful in the end. This wild blood clam is now producing less and less, and local fishermen are interviewing shorter fishing periods to protect the breeding of blood clams.
Interpretation: Blood clams only grow in T-shaped Bay
The reporter learned that the purple color blood clam is commonly known as the purple clam, flat body, thin shell, with a shell mask has several circular purple belts and different from the general shellfish, in the Shandong Peninsula is only seen in the T-shaped Bay Baima Island west, east of Xiangdao Island, Wulong River mouth Jimo side of the shoal, here belongs to the boundary of Fengcheng Town. This clam has tender meat, delicious taste and strong aroma, and is a valuable edible shellfish. Its burial depth is generally 15 to 25 cm, and after spawning from late March to early April, it is gradually buried to 30 to 40 cm with the increase of water temperature, and the average shell length of clams during the harvest period is 34. 8 mm, average weight 5 g. The reporter learned that the blood clam, scientific name of purple color blood clam, is one of the local specialties of Jimo, mainly distributed in the sea area of T-shaped Bay, inhabiting the coastal beach. "This clam grows naturally because of its small amount and is not farmed." According to reports, the purple color blood clam has a flat body and a thin shell, and is only found in the Shandong Peninsula on the shoal on the ink side of the Wulong River estuary above Baima Island above T-shaped Bay. Purple blood clams are tender, delicious and fragrant, and are valuable edible shellfish with high nutritional value.
Statement: There are fewer and fewer seafood specialties in T-shaped Bay
According to local fishermen, in the past few decades, T-shaped Bay is rich in purple clams and tiger crabs, but in recent years, production has declined, and some have been difficult to see. If you search for local specialties in Tianheng Town and Fengcheng Town on the eastern coast of Jimo on Baidu, the terms horseshoe crab, tiger head crab, and purple blood clam will appear frequently. Nowadays, even the local fishermen feel strange when it comes to these long-lost delicacies. The reporter recently visited the local area and found that these three characteristic seafood products, which once made local fishermen proud, are now difficult to find in the market and hotels.
On the eastern coast of Jimo, many fishermen said that these two crabs are rarely seen now. Tiger head crabs are originally a specialty of T-shaped Bay, and there may be some in the local area every winter, but the number is also very small. In recent years, The horseshoe crab, a specialty of Tayokojima, has been almost gone. The relevant person in charge of the Rural Agriculture Bureau of Jimo District introduced that these characteristic seafood gathered in the eastern sea of Jimo, which was once the pride of the local tourism industry, and now the output has shown a significant decline, especially the horseshoe crab and the tiger head crab, which have been difficult to see in recent years, and there are still some production of purple blood clams, but they cannot form any climate. On the one hand, the decrease in the quantity of these seafood products is closely related to the change of the overall environment, which is a common problem facing the entire marine fishery resources. As far as the biological population itself is concerned, it is also related to the exclusive effect of the biological population in a specific area. Because within a certain sea area, the resources and nutrients for the growth of marine organisms are limited, in the past few years, shrimp farming, and now changed to sea cucumber farming, and some shrimp and crab polyculture, including the cultivation of mudflat shellfish, in the selection of varieties have given priority to the economic added value of the product, these species can be widely promoted, the local formation of scale, other populations in the same sea area will inevitably be affected, gradually showing weakness.
Blood clams, have you ever eaten them?