Clams in Haverstraw Bay

Photo by John Lipscomb

There are millions of these beautiful little clams in the sediment in Haverstraw Bay. They are a brackish water mollusc called "Rangia cuneata" native to the Gulf of Mexico. They either invaded or re-colonized the lower Hudson in the 1980's. Rangia are harvested in some parts of the eastern U.S. and Gulf of Mexico but eating them here might be risky. 


Riverkeeper/Lamont-Doherty sampling periodically finds violation levels of sewage related microbes in Haverstraw Bay and the local tributaries.