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When Blaine Parker went clam hunting near his Florida home this February, he couldn’t have imagined stumbling upon a quahog so big it would light up the internet.
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The quahog clam was six inches long and weighed a whopping 2.6 pounds. Thats more than five times bigger than the average quahog, which tips the scales at just half a pound. Parker, a researcher at the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab, knew it was something special as soon as he pulled it out of the water. According to the Washington Post, he was startled by the thing’s sheer size and knew he had to figure out how old it was.
So, he set about counting the clam’s external rings, a common way of determining the age of really old animals. He deduced the quahog likely hatched in 1809, sharing a birth year with none other than the 16th president of the United States. Fittingly, he christened the mollusk Abra-Clam Lincoln.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), quahog clams can live for “at least” 200 years. They grow slowly and as such take until the age of 20 to reach a “commercially harvestable size.” Clams older than 200 are relatively rare, especially in areas that are regularly harvested.
Though Parker had initially gone clam hunting with the goal of making chowder, he decided Abra-clam Lincoln was too special for that kind of fate. Instead, he decided to take the quahog to work to show it off to his colleagues.
As Parker dove further into his research, he learned even more about his colossal find. After consulting an expert, the pair determined that the clam might be younger than the 107 to 214 years Parker originally estimated. Unfortunately, to find out for sure, he would have needed to count Abra-clam’s inside rings, which would involve killing the clam. Fortunately, he decided to pass. Instead, on February 24, less than a week after unearthing the giant clam, Parker released it back into the ocean, allowing Abra-clam Lincoln’s incredible story to continue beneath the waves.
