Plumber's Helper

FISHING Plumber's Helper

For over 300 years, Maine's professional clammers have assumed that the only way to dig for clams was with a short rake and a strong back. Last week, they heard differently.

Stephen L. Higgins & wife of Sanford plopped calmly out on a Maine tidal flat, began blitzing the bivalves with a common rubber suction plunger (the kind used on a stuffed-up toilet). cIn the time it takes an uninitiated digger to gather several dozen clams, the Higgins had two bushels of them (current price: $4 a bushel).

Said Digger Higgins: "It's very simple, really. You just push down on this plumber's helper, and up come the clams, all clean."

Said a veteran, $12-a-day clammer: 'Well, I'll be damned!"

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