#4604 · 🐌 snails, slugs & other molluscs
Soft-shelled Clam
🇳🇱 Strandgaper ·Mya arenaria
🐌 Snails, slugs & other molluscs 📍 in the Netherlands
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Soft-shell clams (American English) or sand gaper (British English/Europe), scientific name Mya arenaria , popularly called "steamers", "softshells", "longnecks", "piss clams", "Ipswich clams", or "Essex clams" are a species of edible saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Myidae.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 128 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #36 most seen of the snails, slugs & other molluscs in NL.
- 9,668 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Soft-shelled Clam
- Nederlands
- Strandgaper
- scientific name
- Mya arenaria
- class
- Bivalvia
- order
- Myida
- family
- Myidae
- sightings in NL
- 128
- sightings in Europe
- 2,531
- sightings worldwide
- 9,668
- GBIF records in NL
- 38,244
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
relatives· Myidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 81634, Wikidata Q20958, GBIF 7791733, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.