SANDPOINT — University of Idaho researchers are conducting surveying to determine the extent of the Asian clam population in Lake Pend Oreille.

The team of researchers has been deploying a PONAR dredge at Ellisport Bay to collect samples from the lake bed. The dredge, which is an acronym of the names of Great Lakes scientists who developed it, is a bread box-sized mechanical jaw that scoops up sediment so it can be hauled onto a boat.

The contents of the dredge are then sifted through for evidence of clams.

Preliminary results suggest the clams are more widespread in the bay than previously thought, said Tom Woolf, the Idaho State Department of Agriculture’s aquatic program manager.

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