Scarborough, Maine
May, 1997
by John Alphonse
Local ways of living still persist in the Greater Portland area, even as we approach the next millennium. Scarborough clam digger Jack Cloutier has worked the local flats since 1993, maintaining a simple yet comfortable lifestyle of living off the land by the sea.
"You work with the tides, so your schedule is always different, never boring," says Cloutier. "One week you're up early in the morning for the low tide, the next week you start a little later, and the next week you can work mornings and evenings."
Like most clammers, Cloutier sets up his own accounts with area food sellers and handles all the details from dig to diner. "You really want to pay attention to quality when your living depends on it," he notes.
Recent law changes proposed by Maine state legislators would have posed a threat to an industry that has practiced local control successfully since 1963. Defeated in April by the state's Marine Resources Committee, the new bill would have opened clam flats to anyone with a state license, eliminating local licensing and stewardship, and potentially jeopardizing the resource.
The industry's past experiences have shown that minus the local element, clam diggers tend to wipe out an area and then move on to the next; there is no incentive for them to practice conservation. Oftentimes, extreme weather buries the flats in a foot or more of tidal sediment. Without the locals aerating the flats by digging throughout the year, the shellfish would die of suffocation.
A local licensing requirement dictates 12 hours of conservation effort per year for a clammer to maintain his license. Clammers sign up for group projects to clean the flats, and reseed and survey clam populations. Like Cloutier, most clammers are eager to do their part to protect their livelihood.
"If it wasn't for local clammers, a lot of these areas would have been wiped out. We live here and make a living off clams, so we do our part to keep things healthy," Cloutier says.
By utilizing the resource as a personal food supply, Cloutier also saves time and money . His job provides him with food as well as income, while most of us buy our food with our paychecks.
"I have this old recipe for clam cakes that used to be my grandfather's," he says, "and everyone just goes crazy over them."
His maternal grandfather, Lou Guerette, was born and raised in Portland's West End. "Anything to do with the ocean, he had his fingers in," says Cloutier, who remembers lobstering and crab picking with him.
Clam cakes, steamers, clams on the half shell; all specialties of Chef Cloutier. "They don't get any fresher than this, and I save running around buying a few meals a week!"
In the winter months when clamming becomes difficult to impossible, Cloutier supplements his income by splitting wood, and with other odd jobs.
"I just make enough to have some money in my pockets and get through the day."
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