The weekend-long celebration of the Pismo Clam at the Pismo Beach Clam Festival not only brought extra business to the community but organizers taught people more about this iconic creature.
Rosemary Tenuta spent her Sunday morning learning how to rebury clams at the Pismo Beach Clam Fest. This lesson was meant to teach young beachgoers what to do if they see a Pismo clam under 4.5 inches.
“So we learned how to bury them,” Rosemary said. “So they can stay alive.”
The Pismo Beach stewardship tent at the Clam Festival hosted this lesson, with Cal Poly students educating the crowd.
Rosemary’s dad, J.D. Tenuta, said he’s glad the festival had something like this for his daughter. He said it’s great seeing children interested in helping the clams.
“I think it's great,” Tenuta said. “She's been out at the ocean a few times and seen them around, wanted to get them back to the ocean but didn't know what to do.”
“We really believe at the Pismo Beach Stewardship and Educational Outreach program that kids are one of the best ways to start that education and to grow up with knowing the right thing,” said Emma Rhoads, City of Pismo Beach representative.
Rhoads said there was an estimated 10,000 people across the two-day festival. With numbers like these, local businesses said it’s a great boost in the off season.
“Business this time of year is typically slow,” said Don McKee, Pancho’s Surf Shop owner. “But when they have events like this, you know, coming through town, the city does a good job just bringing in special events like this to kind of help out everybody here in town and brings in revenue.”
Though McKee said this weekend doesn’t bring in as much traffic as the Fourth of July, it’s all hands on deck when the Clam Fest is in town.
“It's incredibly different,” he said. “We go from doing nothing to everything in just, like, one day. So we got to make sure we're staffed correct for it. Get ready for, you know, prepare for the day because you just get run over.”
