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The Magazine

Northshore October 2025
For 86 years, Plum Island scientists have been cleaning the North Shore’s clams. Today, they’re keeping a New England tradition alive. For locals who grew up eating native clams—steamers swirled in hot butter, fried bellies with tangy tartar, creamy chowder—it’s hard to imagine summer without our bivalve buddies. But in 1925, disease traced to New York clams closed flats across the Northeast. To rescue the industry, Newburyport officials experimented with depuration, purging clams of bacteria by immersing them in spring water. Almost a century later, Plum Island’s Newburyport Shellfish Purification Plant
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