Fish and Game closes east side beaches to clamming in 2018

Clamming, again, will not be permitted on Cook Inlet's east side beaches.

The Peninsula Clarion reports the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Friday announced the closure on the stretch from the tip of the Homer Spit to the Kenai River mouth.

The closure begins Jan. 1 at 12:01 a.m. and will continue through the end of the year. It marks the fourth year in a row there will be no clamming in the area.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says researchers will continue to look into the high mortality and low recruitment that have kept the number of mature clams on the Ninilchik and Clam Gulch beaches "at historically low levels" since 2014.