Mercenaria mercenaria

I haven't had clams on the half-shell in I don't know how long.  I think I have a nagging worry about "what if there is something wrong with the clams?"   I know they can carry things in them that can be harmful to us.  So what I usually do with hard clams is bring them home and steam them, in hopes the steaming will make the clams safe.  But for some reason the other day, I really wanted them on the half-shell, so I bought a dozen of them at the store.  The store has a good reputation for shellfish and seafood, so I felt comfortable eating them.  Man oh man were they delicious!  I love the taste of salt water you get along with the clams.  I was able to find my clam knife (and my oyster knife) and I decided to eat them as they came out of the shell without putting any cocktail sauce on them.  Yum!

This is what they look like when they are opened.  The photograph on the bottom shows the leftovers in the sink after my lunch was done!  Oh "Mercenaria mercenaria?" That is the Latin name for hard clams.  How would I know that?  Because when I was in High School, I worked for the Milford Laboratory,  a U. S  Government marine biological lab in Milford that was doing research on shellfish, and I did photographs and movies of the research.  I made graphs for the research papers, and I used a mechanical lettering set to write "Mercenaris mercenaria" about a million times!  So get this, I went to check on "Mercenaria mercenaria" and found this:  The term "red tide" refers to an accumulation of a toxin, such as saxitoxin, produced by marine algae.  Filter-feeding shellfish are affected, such as clams, oysters, and mussels. The toxin affects the human central nervous system. Eating contaminated shellfish, raw or cooked, can be fatal.  Yikes!  "...raw or cooked!"  I may be done eating raw clams!