First published in The Age on May 25, 1992

Navy called in to save 90,000 endangered giant clams

Giant clams — Tridacna gigas —are considered an endangered species. But because of a too-successful breeding program in a North Queensland bay, the navy has been called in to rescue up to 90,000 clams in danger of dying from overcrowding.

Enthusiasts are calling it “the world’s biggest operation to relocate a single marine species”, and rarely has so humble a mollusc attracted so much attention — or an official military codename.

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Operation Clamsaver is the result of consultations between James Cook University scientists, navy officials, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, and the Federal Minister for the Environment, Mrs Kelly.

Eight years ago, the scientists began a program to breed the clams in Pioneer Bay on Orpheus Island north of Townsville. The project was so successful that today there are 90,000 clams, aged between two and eight years, competing for space, light and food and clogging the bay.

“Too successful”, says Mr Mike Bugler, the marine park authority’s senior project officer.

The oldest clams now weigh eight to ten kilograms, are up to 41 centimetres long and 21 centimetres wide, and are severely overcrowding each other.