Mercenaria Mercenaria Clam Seed ME

The hard clam, Mercenaria mercenaria, is also known as the round clam, hard shelled clam or Northern quahog. The edible marine bivalve mollusk is native to the eastern shores of the American continents. 

In fish markets, there are specialist names for different sizes of this species of clam. The smallest legally harvestable clams are called countnecks or peanuts, next size up are littlenecks, then topnecks. Above that are the cherrystones, and the largest are called quahogs or chowder clams.

Hard shell clams are an important member of suspension feeding benthic fauna, they inhabit shallow waters, where they can be found intertidally on sand flats, at low tide and can also be found at depths of 15 meters or more.