An unlucky clam

You wouldn't think that a clam would have good or bad luck. I assume, for the most part, that clams are born, grow in the mud, then die. So I went clamming yesterday and one of the clams I pulled up had a limpet (a single shelled mollusk) growing across the two shells of the clam. Now, the clam has little leverage for opening itself up - as needed for its feeding and rudimentary navigational capabilities- and where the limpet crossed from one side to the other, it was probably keeping the clam shut and constricted, preventing the clam from doing much of what it needed to survive. The limpet would have killed the clam after a while.

So I pried the limpet off and was about to pocket the clam when I noticed there was also a small oyster drill (yet another type of mollusk) starting a hole through the clam's shell, in a different place. In a little while the drill would have gotten through, inverted its stomach through the hole, and started to digest the clam from the inside.

And now I am about to toss that poor clam into boiling water. I mean: how many bad things can happen to one clam? Talk about bad luck. Possibly, since it is now resting in a bucket of sea water, freed from the constrictions of the limpet, and not yet punctured by the oyster drill, it might be experiencing a brief moment of relief before the disaster that's coming tomorrow at lunch time. Sad. At least it had an exciting life.

Update: I decided to have mercy on that clam. Broke the oyster drill off and returned the clam to its home waters. The others got cooked and eaten. Whose laughing now? On the other hand, I have read that the seabirds - gulls and diving ducks - pay attention to where people are clamming, and go around afterwards to collect any clams that fell off the clam rake. Smart birds. In fact there were gulls and mergansers swimming where I was clamming the other day, so I payed close attention to where I dropped the unlucky clam back in the water. I am afraid the birds did too. I'll go look for the clam in the future, but its run of bad luck may continue inside the stomach of a bird.