Contagious cancer poses possible threat to Salish Sea clams

In a hotspot of clams, this disease can spread like wildfire. 

“Water is such a good medium for cancer to live in,” said James Dimond, a marine biologist at Western Washington University’s Shannon Point Marine Center in Anacortes. 

Neither the soft-shell or the cockle are currently commercially farmed like other bivalves in Washington, but their loss, especially the native cockle, would be devastating for the environment.