Scallops were sampled close to heavily oiled beaches, cooked and eaten with no evidence of contamination. Chemical analysis of scallops showed that oil was present not only in the digestive tract but in other organs (Ford, 1971). Soon after the spill, clams showed a reduction in numbers with a 20% mortality rate and little recovery or cleaning. Many died as a result of suffocation by oil. The clams moved up their rows and even left the substrate to evade pools of oil and if they survived, were unresponsive, but showed some recovery after prolonged exposure to air (Royal Commision, 1971). Months after the spill, excavation of clams revealed oil extending down most burrows and often forming a pool at the bottom. Chemical analysis of clams showed that oil was present in the digestive tract and other organs. By the end of June, the clams still contained oil. As a matter of public safety, clam beds, which were noncommercial but harvested by locals, were closed despite that no furthur mortalities occured after June, 1970 (Ford, 1971). Dr. E.S. Gilfman of Bowdoin College, Maine showed that six years after the spill, clam populations in chronically-oiled sediments are reduced in numbers, have an altered age distribution, and in many cases show a curious break in the six year age class, coinciding with the 1970 spill. Tissue and shell growth rates of oiled clams were lower than these of non-oiled sediments. The clams efficiency in utilizing food intake differed between oiled and non oiled. Thus the clam population in these chronically oiled sediments was under a great deal of stress. It was down in numbers, the physiology was upset and the recruitment effort, impaired. Clams from oiled sediments invariably show petroleum in their tissues, sometimes in high concentration. When clams from oiled sediments were cleaned in oil free seawater, they found that even after seventy-five days, some specimens retained as much as 40% of their initial hydrocarbon load. Vandermeulen also noted that the burrowing clam declined in abundance, and took almost ten years to renew itself (Vandermeulen, 1970).