Guide
Razor clam digs: how a date becomes an opening
Checked September 13, 2026 against the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Department of Health and the National Weather Service.
A razor clam dig is not a season you can turn up for. It is a set of specific dates on a specific beach, approved only days ahead, and only after the clams have been tested twice. This page explains how that decision gets made and what stops a dig happening.
A date is not an opening until the Department of Fish and Wildlife says so. Dates are published in advance as tentative. Final approval “usually occurs about a week or less — sometimes two to three days — before the start of each digging series.” Check before you drive.
The five beaches
Washington manages razor clams as five named beaches, and the boundaries are the department’s own:
| Beach | Runs from |
|---|---|
| Long Beach | the Columbia River north to the mouth of Willapa Bay |
| Twin Harbors | Willapa Bay north to the south jetty at the mouth of Grays Harbor |
| Copalis | the north jetty at the mouth of Grays Harbor to the Copalis River |
| Mocrocks | the Copalis River to the south boundary of the Quinault Indian Reservation |
| Kalaloch | the South Beach campground north to Olympic National Park Beach Trail 3 |
They are not opened as a set. A dig series commonly opens some and not others, and Copalis and Mocrocks are often alternated on consecutive days rather than both being open at once. Kalaloch sits inside Olympic National Park and in many seasons is not opened at all. “Digging is open” is never a statement about the coast; it is a statement about one beach on one date.
Why a dig gets approved, or does not
The thing being tested is domoic acid — Amnesic Shellfish Poison — and razor clams hold on to it longer than most shellfish. The rule is not a judgement call:
“Before a beach can open for digging, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) requires two test samples seven to 10 days apart and domoic acid levels under the guideline level.” The Department of Health closes harvest when levels reach or exceed 20 parts per million.
Then two agencies have to agree. In the department’s words: only after its Director has approved the dates and the health department’s analysis of recent samples shows the clams are safe does it announce that the dates can proceed. Either half can stop a dig, which is why a date on a calendar two months out is a plan rather than a promise.
There is also a long-running health advisory that has nothing to do with any one dig: because of domoic acid exposure over time, the Department of Health advises eating no more than fifteen razor clams a month for twelve consecutive months, aimed particularly at people who are or may become pregnant, nursing mothers, children, older people, and anyone with reduced kidney function.
The rules that catch people out
- Fifteen clams, and you keep the first fifteen you dig. The daily limit is fifteen per person, and “all diggers must keep the first 15 clams they dig, regardless of size or condition.” There is no throwing back a small one or a broken one and digging on. A dug clam rarely survives reburial, which is the point of the rule.
- Your own container. “Each digger’s clams must be kept in a separate container.” One bucket between two people is a violation even if the total is within limits.
- Your own licence. Everyone aged sixteen or over needs a current licence.
- Half a day only. This is the rule people get wrong most. A dig is either an evening dig or a morning dig, never both. Autumn and winter digs run on afternoon and evening low tides, noon to midnight only. Spring digs run on morning low tides, midnight to noon only. Outside that window the beach is not open, whatever the tide is doing.
On timing within the window, the department’s own advice: “Most successful digging occurs between one and two hours before the listed time of low tide.”
The tide is half the job
Digs are scheduled around low tides, and the lower the better — which is why dig dates cluster around new and full moons. The board shows the tide for the town you are reading for; the tide guide explains why the predicted height and the water you actually find can differ, which on an exposed ocean beach is not an academic point.
The other half is the ocean itself. These are open surf beaches with no shelter, dug in the dark for half the year, with your back to the water. The National Weather Service’s warning about sneaker waves is written for exactly this: stay farther back than feels necessary, never turn your back on the ocean, and keep well clear of large logs, which a single wave can lift and roll.
Before you go
- Check the department’s razor clam page in the days immediately before travelling — not weeks ahead. Its own words: “it is important for harvesters to check this page before heading out.”
- Check the health status for the beach on the day, as the shellfish guide sets out.
- Confirm which beaches the series actually opens, and on which dates. Neighbouring beaches are frequently on different schedules.
- Check the hours. Evening series and morning series are not interchangeable.
Sources
- Department of Fish and Wildlife, razor clam seasons and beaches — the beach boundaries, the limit, the container and licence rules, the approval process and the dig hours
- Department of Fish and Wildlife newsroom — where each dig series is approved and announced
- Department of Health, domoic acid in razor clams — the 20 parts per million closure level and the fifteen-clams-a-month advisory
- Washington Shellfish Safety Map — the health status of each beach
- National Weather Service, sneaker waves