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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. It's a Saturday,

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Speaker 1: so we have a vault episode for you here today.

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Speaker 1: This one originally published 9-18-2025. It is our episode titled

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Speaker 1: Jaws of the Giant Clam. We're going to get in

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Speaker 1: and discuss the biology, but also myths and legends and

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Speaker 1: traditions surrounding the giant clam. Hope you enjoy.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name

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Speaker 1: is Robert Lamb.

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Speaker 3: And I'm Joe McCormick.

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Speaker 1: And in this episode, we're going to be diving deeper

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Speaker 1: on a topic that we first explored just a little

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Speaker 1: bit on an episode of Animalia Stupendium, which, of course,

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Speaker 1: is one of our shorties that airs on Wednesdays. And

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Speaker 1: that is the subject of the giant clam. I found

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Speaker 1: this to be a fascinating topic to explore because on

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Speaker 1: one hand, the giant clam is just an amazing organism,

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Speaker 1: notable not only for its size, but also for its

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Speaker 1: unique symbiosis. But in addition to this, it's an organism

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Speaker 1: that has continually invited creative but highly inaccurate ideas about

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Speaker 1: how they actually behave.

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Speaker 3: It's not hard to see why people might look at

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Speaker 3: this thing and think that it will bite you because

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Speaker 3: it just looks like the whole thing is just a

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Speaker 3: pair of jaws, like cartoon teeth.

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Speaker 1: Yes.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And as we'll be exploring, I think the really interesting

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Speaker 1: thing here is that you see this this idea, this

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Speaker 1: interpretation resonating not only with people who don't know any better,

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Speaker 1: who are, you know, one or multiple degrees away from

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Speaker 1: this organism in its natural habitat. but also people in

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Speaker 1: close proximity to it can be overwhelmed by the fact

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Speaker 1: that it looks like a big mouth. What if it

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Speaker 1: was like a big mouth? And what would the consequences

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Speaker 1: of that be? The most pervasive idea, of course, is

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Speaker 1: we're talking about the idea that a giant clam might

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Speaker 1: latch onto your leg while you were diving or snorkeling,

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Speaker 1: or even in a very cartoon sense, swallow you whole.

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Speaker 1: And to be clear, just to go ahead and get

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Speaker 1: this out at the top, This has never happened. There's

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Speaker 1: no recorded evidence of it ever happening. And for reasons

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Speaker 1: we'll discuss, very good reasons, it pretty much never could happen.

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Speaker 3: That's right. There's like one really famous anecdote of a

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Speaker 3: guy claiming that it happened and he was there. And

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Speaker 3: I saw one of the babies and the baby looked

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Speaker 3: at me. There are strong reasons for thinking that this

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Speaker 3: story is not true. And and other than that, it's

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Speaker 3: mostly just vague generalizations from people not citing any evidence

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Speaker 3: or fictional storytelling. Right, right.

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Speaker 1: You know, there are all sorts of things that can

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Speaker 1: go wrong in the water and there are lots of

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Speaker 1: ways you can become injured and so forth. But this

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Speaker 1: is not really one of them. And I think if

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Speaker 1: you were going to if you were going to pin

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Speaker 1: your death on a giant clam, it would be like

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Speaker 1: you would have to essentially like strap yourself to the

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Speaker 1: giant clam and die. drown underwater. You would have to

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Speaker 1: frame it in a major and significant way. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: in some ways, this I think is reminiscent of a

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Speaker 1: recent look at manta rays and the ways that European

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Speaker 1: sailors in particular misinterpreted the great fish as a threat.

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Speaker 1: But again, the curious thing about the myth of the

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Speaker 1: man-eating clam is that while you certainly find it circulating

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Speaker 1: in the 19th and 20th century among Europeans and Americans,

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Speaker 1: the idea also exists among Native peoples who would have

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Speaker 1: had a more hands-on understanding of what these creatures were

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Speaker 1: all about. But again, we're susceptible to, on one level,

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Speaker 1: the kind of creative thinking like, you know, this can

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Speaker 1: occur separate from a logical interpretation. You know, the idea that,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's not a mouth, but what if it

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Speaker 1: is a mouth? And I think we'll maybe get into

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Speaker 1: a little bit about how maybe we're just hardwired to

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Speaker 1: see the jaws that could consume us, even if we

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Speaker 1: know those are not jaws.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, it just, I think it might just boil

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Speaker 1: down to the fact that a giant clam especially just

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Speaker 1: looks too much like a big old mouth for us

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Speaker 1: to move past it.

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Speaker 3: And if you've never seen one of these, by the way,

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Speaker 3: you can look up a, a giant clam or tridacna clam, T-R-I-D-A-C-N-A. Uh,

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Speaker 3: these things have a, uh, a waviness to their shells.

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Speaker 3: You know, the way the shell closes, it, uh, It

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Speaker 3: is not just a straight curved line across. It waves

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Speaker 3: up and down like a, you know, oscillation of a

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Speaker 3: sound wave or something, which sort of suggests teeth and

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Speaker 3: further lends itself into the mouth interpretation.

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Speaker 1: Now, speaking of mouths, it's interesting that Tridacna apparently stems

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Speaker 1: from the Latin for three bites. And this goes back

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Speaker 1: to the writings of like Pliny the Elder and even

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Speaker 1: the conquest of Alexander the Great. where it was said

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Speaker 1: that these could supply such meat as to require not one,

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Speaker 1: not two, but three bites for you to consume it all.

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Speaker 1: So the name actually originates in us eating them rather

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Speaker 1: than any fabulous reversal on that.

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Speaker 3: And people do eat them, by the way. A lot

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Speaker 3: of people believe the meat of this clam is a delicacy.

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Speaker 3: A lot of people think it's really delicious. This has

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Speaker 3: greatly harmed the clams. They're now in a, I believe,

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Speaker 3: listed by the IUCN as a critically endangered species. And

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Speaker 3: there are efforts at combating this by changing over some

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Speaker 3: of the trade in their meat to like farmed populations

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Speaker 3: instead of wild populations, reseeding wild populations and things like that.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, people are definitely getting some three bites there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because they're an important part of coral reef environments,

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Speaker 1: the coral reef environments that they call home. Now, I

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Speaker 1: was excited to look into giant clams. I didn't really

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Speaker 1: have giant clams on my mind at all, because aside

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Speaker 1: from maybe in the background, I had kind of like

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Speaker 1: a Looney Tunes idea of them, you know, swallowing a

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Speaker 1: diving bugs bunny or something to that effect. But as

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Speaker 1: I've previously mentioned on the show, over the summer, I

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Speaker 1: had the privilege of visiting the islands of Raja Ampat

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Speaker 1: in Indonesia, where, you know, rich diversity of marine life

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Speaker 1: And this included the giant Tridacna clams. And, of course,

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Speaker 1: the biggest of all, Tridacna gigas. And a particularly large

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Speaker 1: one in the area was known informally as Wu-Tang clam.

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Speaker 1: And so I didn't get to dive right down to

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Speaker 1: Wu-Tang clam because Wu-Tang clam was like a little deeper

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Speaker 1: than many of the other giant clams I was seeing.

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Speaker 1: But it was still substantially large. And I included a

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Speaker 1: photograph of Wu-Tang clam for you here, Joe. I'm like 99%

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Speaker 1: sure this is a Wu-Tang clam, but this is a

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Speaker 1: shot from down there at its level with proper lighting.

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Speaker 3: Oh, wow. Yeah, just looking at this one image here,

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Speaker 3: it is so crusty with life all over it. It's

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Speaker 3: hard to see this as just one organism, as one

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Speaker 3: clam with its two valves, you know, slightly parted. it

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Speaker 3: looks more like a, I don't know, a big piece

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Speaker 3: of coral reef or something.

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Speaker 1: Well, that underscores the reality here that, yeah, they are

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Speaker 1: reef builders in the long term. Like, you know, they settle,

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Speaker 1: they grow, they're in one spot. And when they eventually

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Speaker 1: pass on for one reason or another, you know, they

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Speaker 1: will be the bones of future coral reefs. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons they're so vitally important to

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Speaker 1: these environments.

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Speaker 3: Another reason I think Rob, maybe you can confirm this

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Speaker 3: because I guess you have seen them up close. I

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Speaker 3: think sometimes people might not recognize they're looking at a

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Speaker 3: giant clam, especially if they're like looking down from above,

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Speaker 3: because it's not, you don't obviously see the shell. You

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Speaker 3: might just see a kind of ripply looking sheet of the,

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Speaker 3: the inner flesh of the clam, like the mantle protruding

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Speaker 3: from out of the shell, because in a lot of cases,

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Speaker 3: They will be perched somewhere in a kind of sunlit

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Speaker 3: sea bottom, and they're trying to spread out and gather

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Speaker 3: sunlight on the fleshy parts. And we can talk about

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Speaker 3: the reasons for that in just a minute here. But

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Speaker 3: you might not actually see something that looks like a clam.

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Speaker 3: You might say, what is this, a big kind of flat,

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Speaker 3: ripply sea cucumber or something? Because you're just seeing the mantle. Right, right.

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Speaker 1: And the mantle tissue can be really eye-catching. Certainly, I

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Speaker 1: saw this a lot with the various giant clams that

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Speaker 1: I was snorkeling over. They almost feel magical at times,

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Speaker 1: seeming to pulsate with a strange energy. And then they would,

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Speaker 1: as you would get near them, they would sense you

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Speaker 1: for reasons that I'll get into. And the smaller varieties

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Speaker 1: in particular would often kind of like maybe not close

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Speaker 1: all the way, but kind of tense. Yeah, they were

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Speaker 1: very vibrant to look at. And to your point, yeah,

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Speaker 1: they are facing mouth up, if you will, because the

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Speaker 1: mantle tissue needs to have maximum exposure to sunlight. Whereas

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Speaker 1: the Looney Tunes version of the giant clam that might

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Speaker 1: eat Bugs Bunny, you tend to imagine it positioned less

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Speaker 1: vertically and more horizontally.

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Speaker 3: You're right, because it's like a crocodile's mouth.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yeah. So as I was passing over these clams,

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Speaker 1: the interesting thing is I still knew enough about clams

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Speaker 1: and giant clams to know that these things were not

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Speaker 1: a danger to me. They were not actually going to

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Speaker 1: try and bite me or anything to that effect. And yet,

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Speaker 1: there is this undeniable resemblance to some sort of a

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Speaker 1: big fleshy mouth or secondary, secondarily, perhaps some sort of

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Speaker 1: yonic imagery. And so these associations, I thought about this

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Speaker 1: a fair amount as I was passing over them, snorkeling,

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Speaker 1: like these associations connect with this, I think, on a

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Speaker 1: primal level. And it's hard not to at least casually

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Speaker 1: think of what you're seeing in anthropomorphic terms, comparing them to,

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Speaker 1: basic human physiological analogs and analogs that are very closely

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Speaker 1: tied in to our survival and reproduction and so forth. Mostly,

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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about giant clams as mouths. But

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Speaker 1: on the subject of yonic imagery, we do certainly see

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Speaker 1: interpretations of clamshells in general and the giant clamshell as well.

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Speaker 1: as vulva in its use as fertility emblems, as well

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Speaker 1: as currency in some cultures in the past. Sometimes you'll

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Speaker 1: even see like Botticelli's rendition of the Birth of Venus

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Speaker 1: cited in there as well, though the shell that he

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Speaker 1: depicts in that painting is a scallop shell, I believe,

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Speaker 1: and not actually a clamshell, but it is presented on

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Speaker 1: a scale that is more in keeping with a giant clamshell.

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Speaker 3: Though I think actually in that, that's also bigger than

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Speaker 3: any known giant clam.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, as we'll discuss, giant clam shells, I think about

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Speaker 1: the maximum you're going to get is like four feet across.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, which is very big.

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Speaker 1: Still very big. It's still enormous. But, you know, they

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Speaker 1: can't fit a Venus. Yeah, you couldn't fit a whole

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Speaker 1: Venus in there. You'd have to really scrunch her up. Still,

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Speaker 1: seashells in general, you know, pop up in Renaissance paintings,

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Speaker 1: paintings sometimes with erotic suggestions in their usage. Though, quite incidentally,

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Speaker 1: there is a Venus... genus of clam. I was reading

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Speaker 1: about this recently. 18th century Swedish naturalist and father of

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Speaker 1: modern taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus, famously described the Venus clam in

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Speaker 1: quite sexual terms, which was pretty controversial at the time.

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Speaker 1: Critics charged that he, quote, indulged in obscene illusions. Suffice

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Speaker 1: to say, it seems quite a common interpretation, second only

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Speaker 1: to the view of the clam as a mouth.

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Speaker 3: Was Linnaeus not otherwise really known for very expressive or

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Speaker 3: controversial descriptions?

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Speaker 1: Correct. That's my understanding, is that this was kind of

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Speaker 1: an outlier where suddenly everyone was like, whoa, whoa, what

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Speaker 1: are you doing? But, you know, I guess the controversy

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Speaker 1: died down after a while.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: It does seem like biology is a funny domain to

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Speaker 3: get upset about that in. Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: All right, well, speaking of biology, let's go through some

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Speaker 1: of the basics of the giant clam here. So again,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about, for the most part, we're talking about

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Speaker 1: Tridactyna gigas, and it can be found in coral reefs

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Speaker 1: of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. They can reach

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Speaker 1: sizes of up to 250 kilograms or 550 pounds, and

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Speaker 1: they can grow to somewhere over four feet or 1.2

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Speaker 1: meters long or across. So again, maybe not, you know,

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Speaker 1: quite man-swallowing size, like we would see in our fiction,

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Speaker 1: but still incredibly big. Like, they still look like a,

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Speaker 1: they can still look like a massive, like, bio-chest there

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Speaker 1: on the seafloor. Yeah. Now, the giant clam, to be

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Speaker 1: sure here, doesn't really have a mouth, especially in the

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Speaker 1: way you might read it as, again, the Bugs Bunny

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Speaker 1: swallowing mouth. Instead, we have the valves. They are bivalves, remember?

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Speaker 1: So we have, like, the two shells. that essentially howls

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Speaker 1: the organism. And inside they have a pair of siphons,

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Speaker 1: one for drawing in food and water and another for

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Speaker 1: expelling waste. Furthermore, they're filter feeders and they have no

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Speaker 1: need for any jaw-like mechanics. There's no chewing that takes

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Speaker 1: place with the two valves. They simply close, or in

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Speaker 1: the case of the giant clams, nearly close their shells

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Speaker 1: for protection. The giant clams can't actually close them all

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Speaker 1: the way for a couple of reasons. And here's another

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Speaker 1: big kicker. They close their shells exceedingly slowly. One of

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Speaker 1: the main predators that they're closing their shells for protection

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Speaker 1: against are sea stars, which are quite a threat to

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Speaker 1: a number of coral reef-dwelling organisms. But they themselves are

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Speaker 1: also slow-moving creatures. So for this very specific encounter, The

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Speaker 1: closing of the shell is actually pretty fast, but it's

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Speaker 1: as fast as it needs to be. And it's not

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Speaker 1: man catching fast.

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Speaker 3: Yes. And the other thing you mentioned is they often

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Speaker 3: don't close their shells completely because you will still see

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Speaker 3: some of the flesh of the clam kind of protruding.

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Speaker 3: Like they've got to both expel water and retract their

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Speaker 3: tissues inside in order to close.

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Speaker 1: Exactly. Now, the varied colorization of the mantle tissues on

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Speaker 1: the giant clam is due to iridocyte cells that feed

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Speaker 1: light to symbiotic single-celled dinoflagellate algae, or zooxanthellae. And this

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Speaker 1: is where we get into the really cool example of

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Speaker 1: symbiosis going on here. The clam acquires these zooxanthellae via

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Speaker 1: constant filter feeding in the water. It also acquires very

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Speaker 1: basic platonic organisms that it actually eats. And thus, during

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Speaker 1: the day, the clam is going to open wide and

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Speaker 1: extend its mantle tissue to absorb the sunlight necessary for

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Speaker 1: the algae to conduct photosynthesis. And in return, the algae

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Speaker 1: produce sugars and proteins that the clam needs to survive,

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Speaker 1: along with its more traditional filtered diet, which it requires

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Speaker 1: less of. So the giant clam has a dual feeding strategy,

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Speaker 1: and this is thought to have evolved some 64 million

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Speaker 1: years ago.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, two different ways of eating. It is photosynthesizing with

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Speaker 3: the help of these organisms that it has absorbed and

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Speaker 3: taken into itself. And then it's also filter feeding. It's

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Speaker 3: sucking through water and filtering out little bits that it

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Speaker 3: can eat.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. And and so that's that's one of the interesting

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Speaker 1: observations you can make as you like snorkel over them

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Speaker 1: is like that mantle tissue is like it really seems

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Speaker 1: engorged and very out there because because it is it

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Speaker 1: is collecting sunlight. And yeah, so fascinating that it has

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Speaker 1: this dual feeding strategy. The giant clam also boasts thousands

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Speaker 1: of pinhole eye spots along the mantle's edge that allow

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Speaker 1: it to detect changes in light. Not only the cycles

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Speaker 1: of night and day, but also telltale shadows of approaching predators.

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Speaker 1: And so this gets into the observation that I had

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Speaker 1: as I was snorkeling over, again, the smaller of the giant's.

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Speaker 1: they would sometimes like tense up a little bit. They

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Speaker 1: wouldn't close all the way, but it would be like

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Speaker 1: a visual like rippling or movement of the mantle tissue

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Speaker 1: and even the valves.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. And I've seen video of the same thing happening.

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Speaker 3: If you say you move your hand over the top

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Speaker 3: of one and cast a shadow over it, sometimes it

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Speaker 3: will kind of tense and partially close.

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Speaker 1: Which again, the logical mind knows that, you know, it

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Speaker 1: is just responding to the presence of another organism, which

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Speaker 1: may or may not be something that is a threat

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Speaker 1: to it. But you also can't help but illogically read

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Speaker 1: it as like little mouths that are kind of going

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Speaker 1: at you, you know. So, again, I think it's almost

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Speaker 1: impossible not to read them on additional levels as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, I mean, I think the way to think

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Speaker 3: of it is that what you're seeing there is a

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Speaker 3: retracting impulse, not a biting impulse. Exactly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. It is a retracting, not a biting. Because, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think the other way we tend to read. artificially

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Speaker 1: think about them, and certainly in modern Looney Tunes sense,

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Speaker 1: is to think of them as a bear trap. And

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Speaker 1: we'll turn to some actual examples from 20th century cinema

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Speaker 1: that depicts them essentially as a bear trap, just waiting

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Speaker 1: down there for divers to pass through.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Before we get to 20th century cinema, there are older

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Speaker 3: stories of giant clams as various forms of monsters or

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Speaker 3: man killers. The giant clam has appeared in some myths

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Speaker 3: and legends of various peoples of the Pacific Islands, sometimes

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Speaker 3: as a benign creature, but sometimes as a dangerous or

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Speaker 3: monstrous creature. One interesting example I found is in a

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Speaker 3: Tuamotuan version of the story of the Polynesian hero Rata.

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Speaker 3: I can't remember if Rata's come up on the show before,

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Speaker 3: but Rata is basically a culture hero that you will

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Speaker 3: find throughout Polynesian storytelling in lots of different Pacific Island cultures.

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Speaker 3: There are Rata stories among the Maori, among Tahitians, Tuamotuans,

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Speaker 3: and others. sometimes with a different name, a slightly different

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Speaker 3: name in different regions. The Rada stories differ in many details,

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Speaker 3: but the most common elements are that he is a young, brave,

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Speaker 3: resourceful hero who has to go on a dangerous quest

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Speaker 3: to avenge the death of his father or to avenge

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Speaker 3: some other kind of crime against his family. And in

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Speaker 3: doing so, he has to build a mighty canoe, which

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Speaker 3: involves filling a tree protected by spirits or magical beings

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Speaker 3: of the forest. Sometimes in older English sources, these beings

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Speaker 3: are translated as elves or goblins. More recent sources, I think,

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Speaker 3: will call them things like forest spirits or something. But

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Speaker 3: once in this great canoe that he has made, Radha

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Speaker 3: has to go on a journey, sometimes with companions. to

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Speaker 3: avenge his family or avenge his father and battle terrifying

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Speaker 3: monsters along the way. And so in one version of

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Speaker 3: the Rata journey, I found one of those monsters he

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Speaker 3: fights is a giant clam. So this is a telling

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Speaker 3: of a version found among the Tuamotuan people of the

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Speaker 3: Tuamotu Islands and of Tahiti, told by a local scholar named...

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Speaker 3: Tarowi to a Mrs. Walker and compiled into a book

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Speaker 3: called Ancient Tahiti by the British Tahitian folklorist and scholar

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Speaker 3: Teoria Henry, who lived 1847 to 1915. So I'm going

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Speaker 3: to read the excerpt of the text. And of course,

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Speaker 3: I have to apologize in advance for any mispronunciations. I'll

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Speaker 3: do my best here. They were sailing on their course

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Speaker 3: when the great au, or swordfish, came into sight, and

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Speaker 3: Radha mistook it for land. But Teva said it was

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Speaker 3: not land, but another foe. So Radha stood prepared again

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Speaker 3: for battle, and when the monster approached the side of

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Speaker 3: the canoe, intending to pierce it, he killed it with

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Speaker 3: his spear and presented the body to the elves as before. Thus,

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Speaker 3: that demon was exterminated. and his flesh eaten by all.

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Speaker 3: They sailed on, and they met the great Urua, the

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Speaker 3: Kavala fish, which looked like land, but Teva told Radha

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Speaker 3: it was the Kavala fish sent by King Puna to

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Speaker 3: kill him. The fish darted forward to carry away Radha,

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Speaker 3: but he stood ready, and as soon as it approached him,

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Speaker 3: he thrust his spear into its throat and killed it,

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Speaker 3: and it was also eaten by all. Next they met

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Speaker 3: the great Pahuatutahi, a giant clam, which appeared like a

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Speaker 3: mountain looming up from the sea. But Teva said, it

365
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Speaker 3: is not land, it is the giant clam. And Rata

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Speaker 3: prepared for the inevitable encounter as his vessel was being

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Speaker 3: drawn up into it. The clam had opened its great

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Speaker 3: valves and was sucking in the waves upon which the canoe,

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Speaker 3: Tua Arata, was sailing. The lad stood at the bow

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Speaker 3: with his spear, and as soon as they reached the

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Speaker 3: center of the clam, he pierced it through its vital part,

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Speaker 3: severing its flesh from the shell so that it could

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Speaker 3: not close upon him. He presented the clam to his

374
00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:42,640
Speaker 3: spirit company to annihilate. And as soon as the canoe

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Speaker 3: was safely away, the dead clam sank into the deep sea.

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Speaker 3: So several interesting things here in the story. It sounds

377
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Speaker 3: like he's talking about cutting the adductor muscle, which is

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00:21:55,290 --> 00:21:58,670
Speaker 3: something we see later when people are talking about how

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00:21:58,710 --> 00:22:02,910
Speaker 3: to fight this clam. In this case, it says that Radha,

380
00:22:02,990 --> 00:22:05,010
Speaker 3: you know, he stabbed it at its vital part with

381
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Speaker 3: the spear, severing its flesh from the shell. And that

382
00:22:08,630 --> 00:22:11,770
Speaker 3: prevented the shell from closing, right? So it sounds like

383
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Speaker 3: he is saying he attacked the adductor muscle, which the

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Speaker 3: clam uses to close the shell. Another thing I want

385
00:22:19,170 --> 00:22:21,310
Speaker 3: to note here is that I think there could be

386
00:22:21,350 --> 00:22:25,330
Speaker 3: a temptation to take a story like this as evidence

387
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Speaker 3: that the storyteller or the storyteller's audience is would be

388
00:22:29,820 --> 00:22:34,680
Speaker 3: expected to believe that giant clams are actually dangerous, that

389
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Speaker 3: they will come and eat your boat or something. But

390
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Speaker 3: I'm not sure that's actually right. In this telling, the

391
00:22:41,460 --> 00:22:44,699
Speaker 3: giant clam is not only a giant clam, as in

392
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Speaker 3: a Tridacta gigas, it is a giant giant clam, described

393
00:22:49,980 --> 00:22:53,000
Speaker 3: as looming over the sea like a mountain and capable

394
00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:57,389
Speaker 3: of swallowing an entire canoe. So, To me, that doesn't

395
00:22:57,430 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 3: necessarily mean that the teller of the story wanted you

396
00:23:01,540 --> 00:23:06,180
Speaker 3: to get the idea that a regular-sized giant clam poses

397
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,320
Speaker 3: a threat to human beings. Though that belief does appear

398
00:23:09,340 --> 00:23:12,480
Speaker 3: to be common enough around the world at different times. Maybe.

399
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Speaker 3: You can't rule it out either. But it might well

400
00:23:15,020 --> 00:23:18,300
Speaker 3: be that the clam in this story is only understood

401
00:23:18,340 --> 00:23:23,930
Speaker 3: as threatening because it is supernatural and monstrous and Leviathan-sized.

402
00:23:24,410 --> 00:23:27,950
Speaker 3: not because regular giant clams are a threat. After all,

403
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Speaker 3: the very next monster that Rata fights in the story

404
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:35,200
Speaker 3: is a terrible demon bird that carried away Rata's parents

405
00:23:35,340 --> 00:23:39,480
Speaker 3: and swallowed his father's head. And this is presumably not

406
00:23:39,540 --> 00:23:42,300
Speaker 3: an indication of what the storyteller thought about the offensive

407
00:23:42,340 --> 00:23:45,550
Speaker 3: capabilities of regular seabirds. So I don't know that we

408
00:23:45,590 --> 00:23:49,270
Speaker 3: can actually draw from this story a belief that giant

409
00:23:49,330 --> 00:23:52,290
Speaker 3: clams would hurt you. It's just like, This is a

410
00:23:52,369 --> 00:23:55,370
Speaker 3: monster giant clam. It might be no different than when

411
00:23:55,450 --> 00:23:59,290
Speaker 3: we have Night of the Lepus, a movie about monster bunnies. Right.

412
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Speaker 1: If a bunny was that big, it would be a

413
00:24:02,330 --> 00:24:06,110
Speaker 1: threat to us just based on its mass. Similar to,

414
00:24:06,130 --> 00:24:08,070
Speaker 1: you know, we know that our house cat is not

415
00:24:08,250 --> 00:24:12,470
Speaker 1: actually a threat to our life in a direct sense.

416
00:24:13,850 --> 00:24:16,810
Speaker 1: But we can certainly engage in fantasies where it is

417
00:24:16,890 --> 00:24:20,469
Speaker 1: enlarged or we are shrunken and then that changes everything.

418
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:20,990
Speaker 3: Right.

419
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:25,380
Speaker 1: If a giant clam were supernaturally giant enough, it could

420
00:24:25,420 --> 00:24:27,570
Speaker 1: filter feed us. Exactly. Yeah.

421
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Speaker 3: I don't want to be filter fed or filter eaten.

422
00:24:30,810 --> 00:24:34,030
Speaker 1: Now, why was this monster's flesh not eaten by all, though?

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Speaker 1: That seems like a missed opportunity.

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Speaker 3: That's a really good question. I don't know the answer.

425
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Speaker 3: Anybody out there listening who's a scholar of Tuamotuan folklore

426
00:24:42,630 --> 00:24:45,399
Speaker 3: or who knows more about the Rata-Hero cycle, do you

427
00:24:45,420 --> 00:24:47,940
Speaker 3: have an idea? Why was the clam not eaten like

428
00:24:47,980 --> 00:24:48,660
Speaker 3: the other fish were?

429
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:51,760
Speaker 1: I like a story where the people eat the monster.

430
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:54,340
Speaker 1: We've encountered these sorts of stories before, and they seem

431
00:24:54,380 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 1: very practical. I mean, sometimes the monster's body is poisonous

432
00:24:57,859 --> 00:25:00,900
Speaker 1: by nature, and therefore, you know, it is left alone.

433
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: But I like a story where they're like, okay, let's

434
00:25:03,940 --> 00:25:04,980
Speaker 1: make use of this flesh.

435
00:25:05,220 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 3: And it's not just the hero. It's actually kind of heartwarming.

436
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,000
Speaker 3: The hero kills the monster and then takes it back,

437
00:25:10,060 --> 00:25:11,200
Speaker 3: and it's eaten by all.

438
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:15,180
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, and speaking of giant clams, I'll also

439
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:18,380
Speaker 1: refer listeners back to our episodes on the Fata Morgana.

440
00:25:19,540 --> 00:25:25,310
Speaker 1: This being a mirage, an optical illusion that is seen

441
00:25:25,350 --> 00:25:28,490
Speaker 1: at sea, which I did get to see an example

442
00:25:28,590 --> 00:25:34,310
Speaker 1: of when I was in Indonesia. But we discussed the

443
00:25:34,369 --> 00:25:38,050
Speaker 1: Chinese myths concerning the shin or chin, which is a

444
00:25:38,130 --> 00:25:41,150
Speaker 1: kind of giant clam, a giant, giant clam, to be sure,

445
00:25:41,190 --> 00:25:44,600
Speaker 1: a supernaturally giant clam. And this one, too, kind of

446
00:25:44,670 --> 00:25:47,470
Speaker 1: emerges from the water like a mountain. But it also

447
00:25:47,570 --> 00:25:53,480
Speaker 1: expels a fantastic phantasmagorical island, you know, that throws sailors

448
00:25:53,660 --> 00:25:55,919
Speaker 1: off and people sail towards it. And then they realize

449
00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:58,300
Speaker 1: too late that this was not a real place at all,

450
00:25:58,340 --> 00:26:02,550
Speaker 1: but just an illusion cast up by this giant, this

451
00:26:02,630 --> 00:26:04,230
Speaker 1: giant bivalve in the water.

452
00:26:04,609 --> 00:26:04,810
Speaker 2: Yeah.

453
00:26:05,750 --> 00:26:08,909
Speaker 1: But I don't believe it ever, you know, latched on

454
00:26:08,970 --> 00:26:11,859
Speaker 1: or ate anybody. So I kind of skipped over it

455
00:26:11,910 --> 00:26:13,020
Speaker 1: otherwise for this episode.

456
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:13,520
Speaker 3: Yeah.

457
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:18,120
Speaker 1: Now, coming back to modern myths of giant clams eating people,

458
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,640
Speaker 1: I want to read an excerpt from Charles Frederick Holder.

459
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:28,699
Speaker 1: He was an American naturalist and conservationist. And he had

460
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:32,959
Speaker 1: a book in 1885 titled Elements of Zoology. And this is,

461
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 1: I'm to understand otherwise for the time period, a very

462
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:39,119
Speaker 1: well-regarded work. So this is, again, not an example of

463
00:26:39,660 --> 00:26:44,620
Speaker 1: outrageous fiction. It is not an example of mythology or folklore. Just,

464
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,179
Speaker 1: you know, an attempt to present biological facts about the

465
00:26:48,220 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 1: natural world. And in it, he writes, quote, so powerful

466
00:26:52,900 --> 00:26:55,760
Speaker 1: are they that large sharks and rays that have accidentally

467
00:26:55,859 --> 00:27:00,660
Speaker 1: crossed them have been seized and held. That already gives

468
00:27:00,700 --> 00:27:03,350
Speaker 1: us a lot to play with. First of all, crossed them,

469
00:27:03,420 --> 00:27:05,590
Speaker 1: I think, just means has come close to them. I

470
00:27:05,609 --> 00:27:08,649
Speaker 1: don't think this is like a vendetta situation he's describing here.

471
00:27:09,030 --> 00:27:09,210
Speaker 2: Right.

472
00:27:09,930 --> 00:27:12,889
Speaker 1: He goes on to state that the Tridacna always harbors

473
00:27:12,930 --> 00:27:17,960
Speaker 1: within its shell several crabs. I actually couldn't find out

474
00:27:18,060 --> 00:27:20,140
Speaker 1: much about this other than to say that, yeah, you

475
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:23,880
Speaker 1: will find lots of animals living around and even among

476
00:27:23,900 --> 00:27:27,570
Speaker 1: the valves of a clam like this. And then he

477
00:27:27,650 --> 00:27:31,850
Speaker 1: also points out that the bysis, this is the substance

478
00:27:32,130 --> 00:27:37,290
Speaker 1: that sticks the clam to the rock, is, quote, so

479
00:27:37,369 --> 00:27:39,469
Speaker 1: large that it can only be cut with a hatchet.

480
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:41,300
Speaker 1: And then he goes on to point out that eight

481
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,580
Speaker 1: species are known. So still, the idea that the clam

482
00:27:44,619 --> 00:27:49,359
Speaker 1: will latch on to creatures in its vicinity, including sharks

483
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 1: and rays, which, as we've discussed, are very agile creatures

484
00:27:53,580 --> 00:27:56,900
Speaker 1: that are not certain. I mean, it's one thing to

485
00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:00,580
Speaker 1: even make the claim, well, that a flimsy human snorkeler

486
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:02,740
Speaker 1: or diver might get trapped by one of these things.

487
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:04,820
Speaker 1: But it's quite another to imagine a shark or a

488
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,240
Speaker 1: ray being grabbed by something like this.

489
00:28:08,270 --> 00:28:10,030
Speaker 3: Yeah, but that's not going to stop you from telling

490
00:28:10,050 --> 00:28:13,369
Speaker 3: a good story. I mean, so there are lots of

491
00:28:13,470 --> 00:28:17,250
Speaker 3: perpetuators of the myth of the killer clam in the

492
00:28:17,690 --> 00:28:21,660
Speaker 3: 20th century. I came across many, many things here that

493
00:28:21,700 --> 00:28:25,340
Speaker 3: we can discuss. One great example of the idea that

494
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:29,360
Speaker 3: giant clams were dangerous appears in a very short article

495
00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:34,570
Speaker 3: that was reprinted throughout the publishing world. originally in the

496
00:28:34,609 --> 00:28:39,430
Speaker 3: magazine Popular Mechanics in May 1924. This was volume 41,

497
00:28:39,430 --> 00:28:43,650
Speaker 3: number 5. I saw a vague reference to this in

498
00:28:43,710 --> 00:28:45,690
Speaker 3: another article, and I had to go dig up the

499
00:28:45,750 --> 00:28:48,330
Speaker 3: original text. And I'm glad I did, by the way,

500
00:28:48,370 --> 00:28:53,930
Speaker 3: because this entire issue of Popular Mechanics is hilarious. This

501
00:28:54,010 --> 00:28:56,110
Speaker 3: is sort of a digression from The Clams, but I

502
00:28:56,170 --> 00:28:58,880
Speaker 3: have to discuss a few highlights from this 1924 pop mech.

503
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:05,980
Speaker 3: One headline says, tear gas in police clubs to foil bandits.

504
00:29:09,300 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 3: The article claims that it is impossible to remain within

505
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:15,750
Speaker 3: 10 feet after the gas is released. So it says,

506
00:29:15,810 --> 00:29:18,090
Speaker 3: you know, you hit the bandit with your mace or

507
00:29:18,150 --> 00:29:21,170
Speaker 3: billy and it releases the tear gas. And I was like,

508
00:29:21,990 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 3: what about the person hitting with it? I guess they

509
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:26,160
Speaker 3: have to be wearing a gas mask.

510
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:28,060
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess they just have to be gas masked

511
00:29:28,140 --> 00:29:29,620
Speaker 1: up from the get go. What?

512
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:34,209
Speaker 3: It's in the club. It was inside the club. The

513
00:29:34,310 --> 00:29:39,930
Speaker 3: other thing is the headline baking as cure for dog ills.

514
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 3: is tried in germany and rob here's a illustration for

515
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:45,940
Speaker 3: you to look at well not a photo of a

516
00:29:45,980 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 3: guy who's got a dog and it's just labeled dog

517
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:52,620
Speaker 3: being baked in gas oven now i i have to

518
00:29:52,660 --> 00:29:55,030
Speaker 3: clear it's not saying that you bake it at like

519
00:29:55,110 --> 00:29:57,770
Speaker 3: cooking temperatures i think it's just like Kind of like

520
00:29:57,810 --> 00:30:00,050
Speaker 3: a steam bath. It's like very warm in there.

521
00:30:00,170 --> 00:30:02,410
Speaker 1: Like a cartoon steam bath where you would have a

522
00:30:02,430 --> 00:30:05,250
Speaker 1: cartoon character get in and only their head sticking out.

523
00:30:05,330 --> 00:30:08,030
Speaker 1: That's exactly what they're doing to this dog. That headline

524
00:30:08,530 --> 00:30:11,180
Speaker 1: really is a roller coaster because when I first read it,

525
00:30:11,230 --> 00:30:12,880
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, well, that's kind of nice. You're

526
00:30:12,930 --> 00:30:15,980
Speaker 1: baking for the dog. You're making little cookies or, you know,

527
00:30:16,020 --> 00:30:19,460
Speaker 1: little treats. But no, this dude has a metal contraption

528
00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:21,940
Speaker 1: that this dog's body is stuck in.

529
00:30:22,940 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 3: So this poor dog's just looking like I'm very hot.

530
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:26,100
Speaker 1: Yeah.

531
00:30:27,950 --> 00:30:36,370
Speaker 3: Another one. Here's a headline. 40-pound cigar is valued at $ 75.

532
00:30:34,770 --> 00:30:37,690
Speaker 3: What is said to be one of the largest cigars

533
00:30:37,830 --> 00:30:41,350
Speaker 3: ever made, one of the largest, was shown at an

534
00:30:41,490 --> 00:30:46,110
Speaker 3: Eastern Tobacco Exposition. And it goes on to not really

535
00:30:46,150 --> 00:30:48,719
Speaker 3: say anything else except that it's valued at $ 75. It

536
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:51,680
Speaker 3: does not answer the question, did anybody smoke it?

537
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,560
Speaker 1: And it's so weird looking at these because my grandfather

538
00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:00,930
Speaker 1: in the, I guess this was in the 80s and 90s,

539
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,140
Speaker 1: he always had copies of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science

540
00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:07,350
Speaker 1: sitting around. And I would look through them as a kid. And,

541
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,810
Speaker 1: you know, these felt like they were accurately depicting the future.

542
00:31:11,850 --> 00:31:15,090
Speaker 1: There are always articles about, you know, new gadgets, new

543
00:31:15,190 --> 00:31:20,110
Speaker 1: upcoming technologies. So it's quite a trip to explore these

544
00:31:20,590 --> 00:31:22,610
Speaker 1: previous stories in Popular Mechanics.

545
00:31:23,050 --> 00:31:27,450
Speaker 3: Skeptical editorial standards might have been improving as the decades

546
00:31:27,490 --> 00:31:32,130
Speaker 3: went on, maybe. Anyway, on to clams. So in this

547
00:31:32,190 --> 00:31:37,430
Speaker 3: wacky Popular Mechanics, there's one article titled, Giant Clams Trap

548
00:31:37,470 --> 00:31:41,450
Speaker 3: Sea Divers in Grip of Shells. It's a very short article,

549
00:31:41,510 --> 00:31:44,830
Speaker 3: so I can read it in full. It says, Shells

550
00:31:44,970 --> 00:31:48,590
Speaker 3: of huge clams found off the coast of Papua often

551
00:31:48,650 --> 00:31:52,870
Speaker 3: weigh more than 400 pounds. Divers who accidentally step into

552
00:31:52,910 --> 00:31:56,530
Speaker 3: the open lips of the monsters are not infrequently held

553
00:31:56,570 --> 00:32:00,230
Speaker 3: with such force that they cannot release themselves and are drowned.

554
00:32:00,870 --> 00:32:03,990
Speaker 3: The shells close with such force that they serve as

555
00:32:04,070 --> 00:32:08,010
Speaker 3: gigantic traps. That's the whole article, except for there's a

556
00:32:08,130 --> 00:32:11,500
Speaker 3: photo of a giant clam. And we see the characteristic,

557
00:32:11,740 --> 00:32:14,640
Speaker 3: you know, shell with the wavy line of the mouth.

558
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 3: And the caption is, Giant clam in coral reef off

559
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,700
Speaker 3: New Guinea. Powerful crushing lips partly open.

560
00:32:23,820 --> 00:32:26,640
Speaker 1: The interesting thing here is though it's described as partly open,

561
00:32:27,100 --> 00:32:30,050
Speaker 1: this is actually probably a situation where they're as closed

562
00:32:30,090 --> 00:32:31,070
Speaker 1: as they are going to get.

563
00:32:31,410 --> 00:32:31,690
Speaker 3: Yes.

564
00:32:32,650 --> 00:32:35,170
Speaker 1: And they're describing giant clams, by the way, in exactly

565
00:32:35,210 --> 00:32:37,710
Speaker 1: the area that I was snorkeling in.

566
00:32:38,070 --> 00:32:41,620
Speaker 3: Oh, that's funny. Now, the text of this Popular Mechanics

567
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:45,830
Speaker 3: article seems to have been reproduced in newspapers and other

568
00:32:45,940 --> 00:32:48,690
Speaker 3: publications in the 1920s. So it seems kind of like

569
00:32:48,710 --> 00:32:52,410
Speaker 3: this story really got around in the following decades, including

570
00:32:52,470 --> 00:32:57,370
Speaker 3: in various bits of pop culture. This exact clam trap

571
00:32:57,410 --> 00:33:01,480
Speaker 3: scenario is depicted in a scene from a 1948 adventure

572
00:33:01,540 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 3: film called Wake of the Red Witch, starring John Wayne

573
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:09,700
Speaker 3: himself and Gail Russell. Rob, I put in a link

574
00:33:09,740 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 3: for you to look at the scene if you want.

575
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:13,420
Speaker 3: It's actually, I don't know, it's not that remarkable as

576
00:33:13,460 --> 00:33:15,260
Speaker 3: a scene, and it's really hard to see what's going

577
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:19,120
Speaker 3: on in the underwater photography. It's very murky. Basically, the

578
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:22,470
Speaker 3: movie is a revenge story about this deadly feud over

579
00:33:22,510 --> 00:33:26,050
Speaker 3: a woman between a bitter ship captain, played by John Wayne,

580
00:33:26,530 --> 00:33:30,030
Speaker 3: and a wealthy shipping company owner, played by Luther Adler.

581
00:33:30,050 --> 00:33:33,020
Speaker 3: I haven't seen the movie in full, but yeah, I

582
00:33:33,060 --> 00:33:35,690
Speaker 3: found a clip of this clam scene. Basically, a kid

583
00:33:35,730 --> 00:33:39,290
Speaker 3: goes diving. He accidentally sticks his leg into a tridacna

584
00:33:39,350 --> 00:33:43,110
Speaker 3: clam shell. The shell slams shut and traps him by

585
00:33:43,150 --> 00:33:46,010
Speaker 3: the ankle. And then John Wayne has to dive down

586
00:33:46,070 --> 00:33:47,990
Speaker 3: and do battle with the clam to get it to

587
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:51,700
Speaker 3: release the kid. He succeeds by, with the kid's foot

588
00:33:51,780 --> 00:33:54,480
Speaker 3: still inside the shell, by the way, by John Wayne,

589
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:57,280
Speaker 3: he stabs into the gap in the clam's shell with

590
00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:00,100
Speaker 3: some kind of spear or almost looks like a glaive.

591
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:03,300
Speaker 3: And I was like, he's going to stab the foot,

592
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 3: but the kid's okay.

593
00:34:05,050 --> 00:34:06,950
Speaker 1: This shell in this movie, by the way, it looks

594
00:34:06,990 --> 00:34:09,810
Speaker 1: like a giant aquarium clam, you know, the kind of

595
00:34:09,830 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 1: little clam shell that opens and closes in your standard aquarium.

596
00:34:13,940 --> 00:34:14,680
Speaker 3: The plastic one, yeah.

597
00:34:14,739 --> 00:34:16,980
Speaker 1: It's like that. It looks like it's made out of

598
00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:20,440
Speaker 1: plastic or something like plastic. And also like no visible,

599
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,939
Speaker 1: or at least I didn't see any visible mantle tissue either.

600
00:34:24,540 --> 00:34:29,169
Speaker 3: Another great example I found from popular culture is Superman

601
00:34:29,230 --> 00:34:33,860
Speaker 3: versus giant clam. There are actually several instances of this. Uh,

602
00:34:33,989 --> 00:34:37,180
Speaker 3: the theme that is usually emphasized is like, wow, Superman

603
00:34:37,260 --> 00:34:40,140
Speaker 3: is so strong. He can even pry apart the jaws

604
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:44,200
Speaker 3: of the killer claim that would take a mightiness born

605
00:34:44,420 --> 00:34:47,960
Speaker 3: only of his Kryptonian blood interacting with our yellow sun. Uh,

606
00:34:48,890 --> 00:34:51,890
Speaker 3: so the main example I came across is that Superman

607
00:34:51,989 --> 00:34:55,489
Speaker 3: fights giant clams in one arc of the adventures of

608
00:34:55,550 --> 00:34:59,220
Speaker 3: Superman radio serial. This was a, I think it was

609
00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:02,790
Speaker 3: a six episode series called The Curse of Dead Man's Island,

610
00:35:02,830 --> 00:35:07,489
Speaker 3: which ran from September to October 1940. And in this encounter,

611
00:35:07,510 --> 00:35:11,520
Speaker 3: they're on a mysterious island and Jimmy Olsen and another

612
00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 3: character are swimming to shore after their motorboat has been wrecked.

613
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:20,520
Speaker 3: and they get attacked by a swarm of fast-moving giant clams.

614
00:35:20,620 --> 00:35:20,960
Speaker 1: What?

615
00:35:21,219 --> 00:35:24,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, these clams, they not only clamp down and trap you,

616
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:26,380
Speaker 3: they actively chase you is what it sounds like. I

617
00:35:26,700 --> 00:35:28,540
Speaker 3: don't remember the exact wording, but it's like, they're coming

618
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:29,259
Speaker 3: right for us.

619
00:35:29,340 --> 00:35:30,840
Speaker 1: They're like wind-up chattery teeth.

620
00:35:32,020 --> 00:35:33,930
Speaker 3: Can we get a sample of this, JJ?

621
00:35:33,950 --> 00:35:39,010
Speaker 1: Good thing the water's clear.

622
00:35:39,110 --> 00:35:40,770
Speaker 2: I've got to work fast before Edward drowns.

623
00:35:40,790 --> 00:35:42,710
Speaker 1: Gotta wrench the shells apart and free his foot.

624
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:47,500
Speaker 2: Scott, these things are powerful.

625
00:35:48,260 --> 00:35:48,620
Speaker 1: Oh, wow.

626
00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:51,620
Speaker 3: Only the man of steel has hands strong enough to

627
00:35:51,780 --> 00:35:54,609
Speaker 3: wrench apart the deadly Moleskine grip. And I love how

628
00:35:54,630 --> 00:35:57,870
Speaker 3: you can hear Superman like grunting and groaning and saying, great, Scott,

629
00:35:57,930 --> 00:36:02,390
Speaker 3: these things are powerful. And then there are also some

630
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:05,939
Speaker 3: some visual like Superman comics where he has to fight

631
00:36:05,980 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 3: a giant clam. There's one I actually was not able

632
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:11,469
Speaker 3: to figure out what. issue this is from, so I

633
00:36:11,510 --> 00:36:13,630
Speaker 3: can't say, but I found it just like a clip

634
00:36:13,710 --> 00:36:15,810
Speaker 3: on Google image searches where it looks like it's a

635
00:36:15,950 --> 00:36:18,950
Speaker 3: silver age Superman who is having to, he gets his

636
00:36:19,050 --> 00:36:21,290
Speaker 3: own foot stuck in a giant clams mouth and he

637
00:36:21,330 --> 00:36:23,650
Speaker 3: has to like shoot it with his eye lasers.

638
00:36:24,410 --> 00:36:26,740
Speaker 1: And this is another example of the, the comic book

639
00:36:26,780 --> 00:36:30,900
Speaker 1: giant clam is more horizontal positioning as opposed to vertical.

640
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:31,379
Speaker 2: Yeah.

641
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,810
Speaker 1: Uh, you mentioned, uh, that, that film from 1948. I

642
00:36:35,870 --> 00:36:39,489
Speaker 1: ran across another film from 1948 that also features pretty

643
00:36:39,530 --> 00:36:43,129
Speaker 1: much the same giant clam gag. And that's the film

644
00:36:43,130 --> 00:36:47,989
Speaker 1: 16 Fathoms Deep. This one starred Lloyd Bridges as well

645
00:36:48,140 --> 00:36:49,590
Speaker 1: as Lon Chaney Jr.

646
00:36:50,219 --> 00:36:52,219
Speaker 3: This one has a lot of narration. I don't know

647
00:36:52,260 --> 00:36:54,460
Speaker 3: who's narrating, but I watched the scene you sent me

648
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:56,940
Speaker 3: and like it's the exact same thing. A kid goes swimming.

649
00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,819
Speaker 3: Clam bites his leg. Somebody has to swim down and

650
00:36:59,860 --> 00:37:02,489
Speaker 3: rescue him. Though it looks a lot easier this time.

651
00:37:02,510 --> 00:37:05,330
Speaker 3: The person who swims down and rescues the kid and

652
00:37:05,350 --> 00:37:06,690
Speaker 3: the clam just kind of pulls him out.

653
00:37:06,710 --> 00:37:08,989
Speaker 1: Yeah, he just goes down and negotiates the situation.

654
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:23,000
Speaker 3: That's right. Now, all this 20th century killer clam stuff,

655
00:37:23,900 --> 00:37:27,939
Speaker 3: when you look into it, it's not like really claims

656
00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:32,420
Speaker 3: based on anything specific. There are Claims that are supposed

657
00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:35,620
Speaker 3: to be authentic, but they're just vague generalizations. And then

658
00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:39,879
Speaker 3: there's also pop culture. But are there any actual specific

659
00:37:40,140 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 3: firsthand accounts of giant clam attacks in the 20th century?

660
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:48,500
Speaker 3: There's one main one, though it will come with some

661
00:37:48,580 --> 00:37:52,779
Speaker 3: major caveats. So a lot of these stories seem to

662
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:57,890
Speaker 3: trace back to a figure named Wilburn Dowell Cobb, an

663
00:37:57,950 --> 00:38:01,470
Speaker 3: American who wrote an article called The Pearl of Allah

664
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:08,860
Speaker 3: in the November 1939 edition of Natural History magazine. Cobb was,

665
00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:11,660
Speaker 3: at the time he wrote this article, the owner of

666
00:38:11,860 --> 00:38:16,980
Speaker 3: a massive clam pearl. And I'm not fully up on

667
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,799
Speaker 3: this distinction, but I know gemologists make some kind of

668
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 3: distinction between clam pearls and some other kind of pearls.

669
00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:25,430
Speaker 3: I I'm to understand that this thing is huge enough

670
00:38:25,469 --> 00:38:29,469
Speaker 3: to be considered really, you know, notable and valuable, but

671
00:38:29,550 --> 00:38:32,569
Speaker 3: that generally clam pearls are not as prized as like

672
00:38:32,630 --> 00:38:36,820
Speaker 3: the iridescent kinds of pearls you might get from pearl oysters. Right.

673
00:38:36,860 --> 00:38:40,120
Speaker 1: That's my understanding as well. The composition is different. Yeah.

674
00:38:40,540 --> 00:38:43,780
Speaker 3: But Cobb was the owner of this gigantic clam pearl.

675
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 3: He originally called it the Pearl of Allah. He later

676
00:38:47,640 --> 00:38:51,960
Speaker 3: renamed it the Pearl of Lao Tzu. which at the

677
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:54,920
Speaker 3: time this article was written, this pearl was advertised as

678
00:38:55,020 --> 00:38:59,970
Speaker 3: the largest pearl ever found in nature. Cobb claimed that

679
00:39:00,070 --> 00:39:03,670
Speaker 3: he acquired it as a gift from a pearl-diving family

680
00:39:03,810 --> 00:39:08,710
Speaker 3: in the Philippine province of Palawan in 1934. And so

681
00:39:08,750 --> 00:39:12,589
Speaker 3: his story goes like this. Again, after this, I'm going

682
00:39:12,610 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 3: to come back with some reasons for doubting this, but

683
00:39:14,340 --> 00:39:16,960
Speaker 3: this is what he says. He says that he was

684
00:39:17,020 --> 00:39:21,800
Speaker 3: visiting a small Dayak village fishing village on an archaeological

685
00:39:21,860 --> 00:39:25,470
Speaker 3: expedition with some companions. Now I was a little confused

686
00:39:25,530 --> 00:39:27,989
Speaker 3: about the terminology he was using to refer to the

687
00:39:28,030 --> 00:39:31,140
Speaker 3: people here because from what I understood the term Dayak

688
00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:34,240
Speaker 3: is usually used to refer to the largest ethnic group

689
00:39:34,300 --> 00:39:38,580
Speaker 3: in Borneo, not to the people of Palawan. I'm not

690
00:39:38,620 --> 00:39:42,319
Speaker 3: sure what accounts for this. But anyway, he says one

691
00:39:42,380 --> 00:39:46,360
Speaker 3: night he was awakened by a great commotion, and it

692
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:50,400
Speaker 3: seemed to be a funeral dirge. Cobb's guide explained that

693
00:39:50,460 --> 00:39:53,840
Speaker 3: his own son, who was the village chief Bog Tong,

694
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:58,120
Speaker 3: had organized a dive to collect conch shells, which the

695
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:02,620
Speaker 3: villagers planned to trade at market for some much-needed new

696
00:40:02,739 --> 00:40:06,819
Speaker 3: fishing equipment. But after several dives, Bog Tong realized one

697
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:10,910
Speaker 3: of his best divers, a man named Etem, was missing.

698
00:40:11,469 --> 00:40:14,350
Speaker 3: And then here I'm going to read from Cobb's article.

699
00:40:14,770 --> 00:40:18,810
Speaker 3: He writes, quote, Suspecting a giant octopus, they unsheathed their

700
00:40:18,850 --> 00:40:22,049
Speaker 3: knives and, as one, dove down in search of their

701
00:40:22,090 --> 00:40:26,370
Speaker 3: missing comrade. On the fourth dive, they found Etem already dead.

702
00:40:27,090 --> 00:40:29,489
Speaker 3: In his search for conch shells, he had failed to

703
00:40:29,570 --> 00:40:33,250
Speaker 3: see the giant tridacna clam, which was partly hidden by

704
00:40:33,330 --> 00:40:37,299
Speaker 3: coral rocks. Its huge jaws held open, ready to clamp

705
00:40:37,380 --> 00:40:41,900
Speaker 3: shut with the strength of a bear trap. Etem accidentally

706
00:40:41,940 --> 00:40:45,930
Speaker 3: got his hand between the shells, which snapped shut. and

707
00:40:45,989 --> 00:40:49,110
Speaker 3: thus he met his death. With the aid of ropes,

708
00:40:49,550 --> 00:40:53,320
Speaker 3: the men hoisted their dead comrade and his deep-sea murderer

709
00:40:53,760 --> 00:40:55,180
Speaker 3: into one of their canoes.

710
00:40:55,600 --> 00:41:00,040
Speaker 1: Deep-sea murderer. Again, these are generally found in coral reef environments.

711
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:00,799
Speaker 2: Right.

712
00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:05,460
Speaker 3: So Cobb claims that this clam, which was brought ashore,

713
00:41:05,900 --> 00:41:10,460
Speaker 3: was later revealed to contain a gigantic pearl. And the

714
00:41:10,500 --> 00:41:14,410
Speaker 3: pearl was first claimed by a local Muslim chieftain but

715
00:41:14,489 --> 00:41:17,720
Speaker 3: then given to Cobb as a gift after Cobb managed

716
00:41:17,780 --> 00:41:21,419
Speaker 3: to save the chief's son from a deadly illness. Again,

717
00:41:21,460 --> 00:41:26,340
Speaker 3: this is all his own account. So there is at

718
00:41:26,420 --> 00:41:30,969
Speaker 3: least a firsthand account of a giant clam snapping down

719
00:41:31,050 --> 00:41:34,150
Speaker 3: on somebody and drowning them. And the pearl itself is

720
00:41:34,230 --> 00:41:37,470
Speaker 3: actually real, but the story of where it came from,

721
00:41:37,489 --> 00:41:41,330
Speaker 3: that has met with intense scrutiny from later reviewers and

722
00:41:41,980 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 3: I didn't have time to chase down all of the

723
00:41:44,219 --> 00:41:48,820
Speaker 3: different investigations of this. There have been several. But it

724
00:41:48,860 --> 00:41:52,680
Speaker 3: seems that multiple later articles point out serious reasons for

725
00:41:52,719 --> 00:41:56,890
Speaker 3: doubting the story, including the fact that Cobb changed major

726
00:41:56,930 --> 00:42:00,950
Speaker 3: details of the story over time. There was no corroborating

727
00:42:01,010 --> 00:42:05,150
Speaker 3: evidence or documentation of this from the Philippines. And frankly,

728
00:42:05,210 --> 00:42:08,210
Speaker 3: while this is just subjective and doesn't really bear any

729
00:42:08,350 --> 00:42:11,860
Speaker 3: evidential weight, I have to say... Just because I noticed

730
00:42:11,910 --> 00:42:15,279
Speaker 3: it myself, if you read Cobb's article, it has a

731
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:19,540
Speaker 3: fabulous texture in the prose. It reads like a guy

732
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:22,240
Speaker 3: making up a story to make himself sound cool.

733
00:42:22,260 --> 00:42:26,379
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds a little carny. It sounds very much

734
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 1: like someone selling the lore of the thing he is

735
00:42:29,100 --> 00:42:29,900
Speaker 1: literally selling.

736
00:42:30,140 --> 00:42:32,520
Speaker 3: Yeah. If you want to read more about this, there's

737
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:34,819
Speaker 3: an article in The Atlantic called The Pearl of Lao

738
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:37,960
Speaker 3: Tzu by Michael LaPointe from 2018, and that gets into

739
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:42,450
Speaker 3: the whole history of this pearl and also what happened

740
00:42:42,469 --> 00:42:45,700
Speaker 3: to it because there was also some ownership controversy after Cobb.

741
00:42:46,900 --> 00:42:50,940
Speaker 3: Another commonly repeated claim when people are writing about this

742
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,839
Speaker 3: idea that giant clams will attack people or clamp onto

743
00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:58,270
Speaker 3: them and trap them underwater is the claim that U.S.

744
00:42:58,690 --> 00:43:03,670
Speaker 3: Navy diving manuals of the 20th century portrayed the grip

745
00:43:03,790 --> 00:43:06,590
Speaker 3: of the giant clam as one of the perils of

746
00:43:06,650 --> 00:43:10,750
Speaker 3: working on the bottom. For example, there's an article that

747
00:43:11,170 --> 00:43:13,240
Speaker 3: I think you referred me to, Rob, that was in

748
00:43:13,390 --> 00:43:16,799
Speaker 3: Atlas Obscura. It's about giant clams, but it's actually an

749
00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:20,399
Speaker 3: excerpt from a book by an author named Cynthia Barnett.

750
00:43:20,640 --> 00:43:22,839
Speaker 3: The book came out in 2022, and it's called The

751
00:43:22,900 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 3: Sound of the Sea, Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans.

752
00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:31,010
Speaker 3: In this excerpt, the author writes, quote, The stories captured

753
00:43:31,050 --> 00:43:33,850
Speaker 3: the imagination of the U.S. Navy during World War II,

754
00:43:33,910 --> 00:43:36,610
Speaker 3: when soldiers fighting in the Pacific were briefed on the

755
00:43:36,750 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 3: man-eating clams. and large sharks known to inhabit the reefs.

756
00:43:41,460 --> 00:43:45,400
Speaker 3: The man-eater myth was so persistent that decades later, Navy

757
00:43:45,460 --> 00:43:49,440
Speaker 3: diving manuals still advised frogmen how to free themselves if

758
00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:53,029
Speaker 3: caught in the vice-like grip of a giant clam, by

759
00:43:53,110 --> 00:43:56,450
Speaker 3: inserting a knife between the valves and severing the animal's

760
00:43:56,550 --> 00:43:57,430
Speaker 3: adductor muscle.

761
00:43:57,450 --> 00:44:01,169
Speaker 1: Yeah, I ran across this tidbit in a couple other

762
00:44:01,210 --> 00:44:03,830
Speaker 1: sources I was looking at as well, but again, couldn't,

763
00:44:04,450 --> 00:44:07,890
Speaker 1: but in terms of finding the original material, I couldn't

764
00:44:07,930 --> 00:44:08,750
Speaker 1: really find anything.

765
00:44:09,030 --> 00:44:11,310
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have no reason to doubt Barnett. I'm sure

766
00:44:11,350 --> 00:44:13,790
Speaker 3: it is out there somewhere, but unfortunately, I wasted a

767
00:44:13,870 --> 00:44:16,790
Speaker 3: lot of time searching in vain for the primary text here.

768
00:44:16,830 --> 00:44:20,580
Speaker 3: I was looking through Navy diving manuals of the 40s, 50s,

769
00:44:20,650 --> 00:44:23,670
Speaker 3: and 70s, and I never found any references to clams.

770
00:44:23,730 --> 00:44:26,950
Speaker 3: In fact, I couldn't find anything at all, really, about

771
00:44:27,030 --> 00:44:31,609
Speaker 3: dealing with wildlife. The sections on dealing with hazards and

772
00:44:32,050 --> 00:44:36,650
Speaker 3: And working on the bottom are highly concerned with various

773
00:44:37,150 --> 00:44:40,129
Speaker 3: forms of entrapment underwater. But it looks to me like

774
00:44:40,150 --> 00:44:44,090
Speaker 3: the most pressing concern is what's called fouling, which is

775
00:44:44,150 --> 00:44:48,390
Speaker 3: when the diver's lifeline or air hose gets caught or

776
00:44:48,530 --> 00:44:51,700
Speaker 3: tangled on something on the bottom, like rocks or wreckage.

777
00:44:52,340 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 3: And this is very dangerous because it prevents the diver

778
00:44:55,180 --> 00:44:58,840
Speaker 3: from safely ascending. I found very little about the diver

779
00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:03,779
Speaker 3: themself being caught bodily, though in terms of threats to

780
00:45:03,820 --> 00:45:07,560
Speaker 3: your own body orientation, there are concerns about getting knocked

781
00:45:07,719 --> 00:45:10,880
Speaker 3: over or tripping and falling on a dive because in

782
00:45:10,940 --> 00:45:15,980
Speaker 3: this era, divers would wear a heavy metal helmet applied

783
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:18,959
Speaker 3: at the surface, kind of like what you see in Bioshock,

784
00:45:19,580 --> 00:45:23,239
Speaker 3: and you had to remain upright during a dive to

785
00:45:23,630 --> 00:45:26,410
Speaker 3: Or you could risk the possibility of flooding the helmet,

786
00:45:26,530 --> 00:45:30,870
Speaker 3: which was very, very bad. So for divers of this period,

787
00:45:30,950 --> 00:45:33,810
Speaker 3: the real monster you have to fear is not a

788
00:45:34,030 --> 00:45:38,890
Speaker 3: creature that lives in the sea. It's hydrostatic pressure. Pressure

789
00:45:38,950 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 3: and equipment failures. That's like the main thing to worry about.

790
00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:44,120
Speaker 3: So not only did I not find any references to clams,

791
00:45:44,660 --> 00:45:47,299
Speaker 3: it just seems like wildlife is like so far down

792
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:49,859
Speaker 3: the list of concerns. Like the thing that they're really

793
00:45:49,900 --> 00:45:53,069
Speaker 3: getting into the uh, the diver's heads here has to

794
00:45:53,110 --> 00:45:56,430
Speaker 3: do with, uh, with dealing with pressure and using your

795
00:45:56,469 --> 00:45:57,390
Speaker 3: equipment properly.

796
00:45:57,410 --> 00:45:58,890
Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah.

797
00:45:59,050 --> 00:45:59,270
Speaker 3: Yeah.

798
00:45:59,310 --> 00:46:03,390
Speaker 1: Pressure, uh, equipment issues, uh, the threats posed potentially by

799
00:46:03,430 --> 00:46:06,660
Speaker 1: other boats, if they're not aware of your presence, things

800
00:46:06,739 --> 00:46:07,200
Speaker 1: like that.

801
00:46:07,489 --> 00:46:07,719
Speaker 3: Yeah.

802
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:12,819
Speaker 1: Um, you know, to be clear, I mean, there are various, um,

803
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:17,989
Speaker 1: threats in the water posed by organisms, but, um, A,

804
00:46:18,110 --> 00:46:21,330
Speaker 1: certainly the giant clam doesn't really rank highly among them.

805
00:46:21,969 --> 00:46:23,790
Speaker 1: And I mean, there's even a case to be made. This,

806
00:46:23,870 --> 00:46:26,930
Speaker 1: you know, the references here, you know, point out sharks

807
00:46:27,050 --> 00:46:30,399
Speaker 1: in reef environments. And, you know, there I was when

808
00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:34,120
Speaker 1: I was in reef environments in Raja Ampat, there were

809
00:46:34,140 --> 00:46:37,140
Speaker 1: sharks around, but they were not interested in us at all.

810
00:46:37,300 --> 00:46:42,420
Speaker 1: So it does make me wonder, OK, if playing devil's advocate,

811
00:46:42,460 --> 00:46:47,090
Speaker 1: let's assume that there actually was reference to this in U.S.

812
00:46:47,130 --> 00:46:50,830
Speaker 1: Navy dive manuals of the time period. You could look

813
00:46:50,870 --> 00:46:54,410
Speaker 1: at it in one of two ways. Either, okay, this

814
00:46:54,510 --> 00:46:58,490
Speaker 1: idea was taken up that these organisms were potentially a threat,

815
00:46:58,570 --> 00:47:00,540
Speaker 1: and therefore you needed some sort of a plan of

816
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:05,259
Speaker 1: action should the threat arise. But maybe also a part

817
00:47:05,300 --> 00:47:07,760
Speaker 1: of it could have been, okay, we're training up a

818
00:47:09,260 --> 00:47:11,440
Speaker 1: lot of landsmen here to go into the water and

819
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:14,739
Speaker 1: do things for the Navy. They're going to have concerns

820
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:18,090
Speaker 1: about organisms in the water, Because they've been watching movies

821
00:47:18,150 --> 00:47:20,720
Speaker 1: or reading comic books or listening to radio programs. And

822
00:47:20,880 --> 00:47:24,520
Speaker 1: or we just have a natural aversion to large, strange

823
00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:28,140
Speaker 1: creatures in the water. And that's understandable. And maybe part

824
00:47:28,160 --> 00:47:31,739
Speaker 1: of that was like, OK, there's no reason that the

825
00:47:31,780 --> 00:47:35,020
Speaker 1: giant clam is actually a threat. There's no reason that

826
00:47:35,140 --> 00:47:37,500
Speaker 1: even some of these sharks are necessarily a threat. But

827
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:40,260
Speaker 1: we need to have give them a plan of action

828
00:47:40,320 --> 00:47:42,930
Speaker 1: so they'll feel more at ease in the water, knowing

829
00:47:42,950 --> 00:47:45,390
Speaker 1: that there is something they can do if this happens.

830
00:47:46,330 --> 00:47:48,850
Speaker 1: if this event were to transpire. Hmm. Yeah.

831
00:47:48,910 --> 00:47:51,570
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I wouldn't say based on what I

832
00:47:51,610 --> 00:47:55,830
Speaker 3: was reading that a giant clam would never be a threat,

833
00:47:55,930 --> 00:47:58,390
Speaker 3: but I would say that it doesn't appear to me

834
00:47:58,489 --> 00:48:00,530
Speaker 3: that the main threat would be that it would close

835
00:48:00,610 --> 00:48:02,779
Speaker 3: upon you. It would be that you would, it would

836
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:04,840
Speaker 3: be the same threat as like a rock or a

837
00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:07,279
Speaker 3: reef on the ground, which is fouling. You would get

838
00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:10,160
Speaker 3: your lines tangled on it. Yeah.

839
00:48:10,340 --> 00:48:10,520
Speaker 2: Yeah.

840
00:48:10,580 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 1: I would, I would agree with that. Treating it essentially

841
00:48:13,140 --> 00:48:18,690
Speaker 1: like a, like any other large, uh, structure or rock

842
00:48:18,770 --> 00:48:20,490
Speaker 1: or piece of coral in the water.

843
00:48:20,870 --> 00:48:23,569
Speaker 3: So beyond all this, I checked around and from what

844
00:48:23,610 --> 00:48:28,719
Speaker 3: I can tell, the killer clam story is universally agreed

845
00:48:28,780 --> 00:48:31,980
Speaker 3: among experts of marine biologists to be without merit. There

846
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:35,320
Speaker 3: is no solid evidence anywhere of a single example of

847
00:48:35,380 --> 00:48:38,890
Speaker 3: a person ever being killed, seriously injured or trapped by

848
00:48:38,930 --> 00:48:43,879
Speaker 3: a tridacna clam. Marine biology resources stress again and again that,

849
00:48:44,260 --> 00:48:47,730
Speaker 3: like you were saying earlier, Rob, the clamshell can close defensively,

850
00:48:48,210 --> 00:48:51,350
Speaker 3: but it tends to close slowly. It has to expel

851
00:48:51,430 --> 00:48:54,190
Speaker 3: water to do so, and it has to retract its

852
00:48:54,310 --> 00:48:57,529
Speaker 3: own flesh, which tends to protrude out of the gap

853
00:48:57,570 --> 00:49:02,560
Speaker 3: in the shell. So apart from Cobb's story, which there

854
00:49:02,660 --> 00:49:06,660
Speaker 3: are serious reasons for doubting, there's no documented account anywhere

855
00:49:06,700 --> 00:49:08,560
Speaker 3: of a giant clam actually harming anything.

856
00:49:09,630 --> 00:49:14,020
Speaker 1: Yeah, you'd really have to Homer Simpson your arm in there. Like, sir,

857
00:49:14,060 --> 00:49:17,140
Speaker 1: are you just holding on to the inside of the clamp?

858
00:49:17,620 --> 00:49:19,629
Speaker 1: Are you just holding on to the mantle tissue? and

859
00:49:19,690 --> 00:49:21,630
Speaker 1: you'd have to say yes actually that's what I'm doing.

860
00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:23,469
Speaker 3: Well yeah I mean I guess the other thing to

861
00:49:23,530 --> 00:49:26,900
Speaker 3: say is that it has never actually happened that we

862
00:49:26,940 --> 00:49:30,799
Speaker 3: know about or in any verifiable way is different from

863
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:34,759
Speaker 3: saying it couldn't happen if you did something really stupid

864
00:49:35,080 --> 00:49:37,460
Speaker 3: right like I don't know if like maybe if you

865
00:49:37,640 --> 00:49:40,589
Speaker 3: really like shoved a boot down in there And you

866
00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:43,759
Speaker 3: forced it to stay inside while the clam was closing.

867
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:46,600
Speaker 3: And until the clam had closed around you, it might

868
00:49:46,660 --> 00:49:48,379
Speaker 3: be hard to get it back out. I don't know.

869
00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:54,790
Speaker 3: But we have no examples that are verifiable that this

870
00:49:54,850 --> 00:49:55,590
Speaker 3: has happened.

871
00:49:56,210 --> 00:49:58,569
Speaker 1: Don't try to be the first. I feel like you'd

872
00:49:58,610 --> 00:50:01,969
Speaker 1: really have to try. You'd really have to get in

873
00:50:02,010 --> 00:50:04,859
Speaker 1: there and really tempt fate and try to make this

874
00:50:04,900 --> 00:50:07,489
Speaker 1: happen for yourself. And, you know, I guess there's one

875
00:50:07,510 --> 00:50:09,880
Speaker 1: way to go down in the history books, but surely

876
00:50:09,900 --> 00:50:14,120
Speaker 1: there's a better option. You'd have to, again, essentially frame

877
00:50:14,239 --> 00:50:16,939
Speaker 1: a giant clam for murder, which I don't think is fair.

878
00:50:17,860 --> 00:50:20,359
Speaker 3: They don't need any more trouble there. I mean, they're

879
00:50:20,380 --> 00:50:22,660
Speaker 3: having a hard time. They take a long time to grow.

880
00:50:23,180 --> 00:50:27,319
Speaker 3: They've been over harvested. Giant giant clams need a break. Yeah.

881
00:50:27,380 --> 00:50:31,520
Speaker 1: Leave them be. Keep a respect, respectful distance. But by

882
00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:33,460
Speaker 1: all means, observe them if you get the chance. Like

883
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:36,890
Speaker 1: I say, it was it. beautiful and weird to be

884
00:50:36,930 --> 00:50:40,170
Speaker 1: in their presence. I can't stress both enough. Again, their

885
00:50:40,210 --> 00:50:43,969
Speaker 1: mantle tissue is beautiful. Their size alone can be quite

886
00:50:43,989 --> 00:50:47,250
Speaker 1: a spectacle. But there is also something kind of weird because, again,

887
00:50:47,670 --> 00:50:51,710
Speaker 1: we can't help but read them as analogs of human physiology.

888
00:50:51,730 --> 00:50:55,390
Speaker 1: And it's weird that they're kind of like smiling up

889
00:50:55,489 --> 00:50:57,980
Speaker 1: at us from the seafloor.

890
00:50:58,700 --> 00:51:02,420
Speaker 3: Smile back. Yes. Get out of their life.

891
00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:05,460
Speaker 1: All right. Well, I think that's going to do it

892
00:51:05,500 --> 00:51:07,239
Speaker 1: for this episode. But, of course, we'd love to hear

893
00:51:07,260 --> 00:51:10,379
Speaker 1: from everyone out there. We've heard in the past from

894
00:51:10,660 --> 00:51:15,230
Speaker 1: snorkelers and divers with lots of experience. So I know

895
00:51:15,270 --> 00:51:17,390
Speaker 1: we have some snorkelers and divers out there who have

896
00:51:17,450 --> 00:51:20,610
Speaker 1: more experience with giant clams or clams in general and

897
00:51:20,670 --> 00:51:24,790
Speaker 1: might want to chime in with their own expertise, observations,

898
00:51:25,070 --> 00:51:29,740
Speaker 1: or lore that you've heard from people. maybe fellow older

899
00:51:29,860 --> 00:51:34,879
Speaker 1: divers and snorkelers about giant clams, whether it's pure mythology

900
00:51:35,060 --> 00:51:37,910
Speaker 1: or fact-based. We love to hear about it, so write in.

901
00:51:38,219 --> 00:51:39,910
Speaker 1: Just a reminder that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

902
00:51:39,950 --> 00:51:42,690
Speaker 1: primarily a science and culture podcast with core episodes on

903
00:51:42,710 --> 00:51:45,509
Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have short-form episodes on Wednesdays and

904
00:51:45,550 --> 00:51:47,790
Speaker 1: on Fridays. We set aside most serious concerns to just

905
00:51:47,810 --> 00:51:49,870
Speaker 1: talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema.

906
00:51:50,469 --> 00:51:53,759
Speaker 3: Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, J.J.

907
00:51:53,800 --> 00:51:54,240
Speaker 1: Poswade.

908
00:51:54,690 --> 00:51:56,130
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

909
00:51:56,190 --> 00:51:58,690
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

910
00:51:58,750 --> 00:52:00,850
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

911
00:52:00,969 --> 00:52:04,850
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

912
00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:15,200
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio.

913
00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:18,899
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914
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:28,549
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