In Nemuro City, Hokkaido, hand digging for short-necked clams, which is a winter tradition, is carried out in the harsh cold.
Tosam Poronuma, near Cape Nosappu in Nemuro City, is connected to the sea and is a brackish marsh where seawater and freshwater mix.
On the 9th, in subzero cold weather, fishermen wearing long torsos used pickaxes and chainsaws to make holes in coastal ice about 30 centimeters thick that had flowed in from the sea.
Then, they dug out the clams with rakes in cold water up to their waists, and sorted them with a metal net called a dustpan to bring back large clams, about 4 to 5 centimeters long.
Clam fishing in Nemuro City is carried out during the winter, when there are few landings in other production areas, and it is also a source of income for fishermen who cannot catch kelp during this season.
Yoshihiro Nagayama, chairman of the Habomai Asari Subcommittee, said, "The ice is thicker than we've seen in recent years. It's a delicious clam packed with nutrients to survive the winter, so please try it." .
The clam fishing in Tosam Poronuma will continue until around April.