Quahog Pearl Found

By Taylor K. Vecsey

April 3, 2020

In the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, Alex Miller gave his friends something else to talk about — at least for the moment.

The Springs resident found a rare purple pearl inside a clam he had just opened. But this is not his first such find. In May of 2019, he shucked a clam and found one then, too.

Wampum purple pearls found in quahogs are extremely rare, according to a past conversation with Barley Dunne, the director of the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery. Cultured pearls that are relatively round are rare, as they often come up in teardrop or odd shapes, but wild, uncultured pearls found in a clam are even rarer, he said.

"To have that happen again, at a time when we're all going through these different emotions of separation as well as the anxiety and food resources and the virus — I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I had this weird second stroke of serendipitous luck," Mr. Miller said by phone earlier this week.

He explained that he went clamming in Three Mile Harbor last Thursday — "I needed to get out of the house," he said, and anyway he had not been clamming since the summer. He raked up clams for an hour and brought home 32 keepers. He opened them up, putting some aside for pasta sauce. He was eating the first half dozen on the half-shell when he made the discovery.

Read entire article here: https://www.easthamptonstar.com/villages/202043/everyday-clam-opens-to-reveal-rare-purple-pearl