Hays Creek Estuary/ --- soft shelled clam (Mya arenaria) Association

Look at this! A clam nursery, right there in Hays Creek. I wonder how many kilograms of "product" is there? Still given Hays Creek's drainage area I don't think I would want to eat them as they probably contain "juices de old dump" and who knows what oils and gunk off the Prince Rupert Streets.

Soft Shelled Mya is fairly distinctive--- that spoon shaped "myophore" on the hinge is distinctive and can be seen in juveniles only a centimeter long.
Probably better not to dig for these fellows though because they are easily crushed even when dug with care-- especially the smaller ones.

Working Hypothesis

All these clams are one species: Mya arenaria. They come in a great variety of shapes and sizes--but even those small ones have the beginnings of the myophore. The depth varies with size (age).

Note the black mud--- it has the smell of hydrogen sulfide---(rotten eggs). That indicates the sediment is low in oxygen.
All this indicates a narrow niche which probably only Mya can fill

While there are many references to Mya on the web since it is common and commercially important species on the Atlantic coast (from which it was introduced into San Francisco as early as 1847 -- from which it spread ---
The Canadian DFO habitat one is more relevant.

And a school kids project raising the little clams was interesting too

A = Vaucheria-- a mat of Xanthophyte algae that binds the soil
B= Puccinellia grass (turf)
C= Sedges forming carpets
D= Silverweed beds upper mudflat perennials
E= Algal mats (when they can escape the fast currents)
Mya Arenaria soft shelled Clam (burrowing in mud habitat)