September 24, 2024 — AT a NOAA Fisheries public meeting at the Crowne Plaza Resort on Thursday, Sept. 19, local residents shared their concerns regarding a proposed rule change for giant clams that could list five species as endangered and one species as threatened.
NOAA Fisheries is also seeking to regulate the import and export of four separate clam species because they have “similarity of appearance” to the at-risk clam species.
According to John Rippe of NOAA Fisheries, the process to list 10 clam species as endangered or threatened began with a petition in 2016.
The following year, NOAA conducted a status review of some of the clams to determine the species’ “current and future extinction risk.”