OCEAN PARK – After years of whining, complaining and testifying before both houses of the Washington legislator, Tom Downer of Jack’s Country Store in Ocean Park said, “We finally have a razor clam license (sales distrubution system) that works.”

Downer explained, “The new point of sale terminals that were recently installed at Jack’s Country Store and Pioneer Market really made an enormous difference last weekend. By adding more dealers to the network there were no significant lines, even at peak demand periods.”

Ed’s Bait and Tackle in Ilwaco, Chinook Country Store, Seaview’s Short Stop, Long Beach’s Dennis Company and Seaview One Stop also have terminals to sell razor clam licenses. Downer said his store processed nearly a thousand licenses during last weekend’s busy clam tide.

Not every dealer was as satisfied with the terminal’s performance, however. Even though cell phone numbers for technical support were provided, Jackie McClure of Chinook Country Store said, “There were glitches in the system. We were forced to put in a DSL hookup to be able to connect to the system and we had several problems with printing the licenses.”

Kaarina Stotts of Pioneer Market agreed, saying, “Several times we had to restart the computer because it froze when we tried to print licenses. We received the machine only two days before the weekend and it worked OK. The system is surely an improvement over the old one.”

Art and Katrina Stotts of Pioneer sold razor clam and other fish and game licenses beginning 24 years ago, but had stopped when they realized that they could not serve their gasoline, deli and market customers due to license sales delays and long lines.

They resumed selling all fish and game licenses and are open from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. Most all of the outlets encourage local people to buy their razor clam and other licenses on days when there isn’t a huge throng of clam diggers on the Peninsula.

Downer wrote a letter thanking the Pacific County Commissioners for their support over the years in pushing to streamline the license procedure. He also thanked the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and the Pacific County Economic Development Council.

Downer said in his letter, “The combination of clam digging, a beached humpback whale and beautiful weather really brought out the people. Thanks to the changes of the pre-print razor clam licenses for rapid distribution during the busy periods my store was able to quickly accommodate hundreds of clam diggers while collecting about $5,500 in revenue for the state.”

The fact that razor clam license fees do not go directly to clam education, enhancement and enforcement does rankle Downer, however. He said, “The razor clam fees are the only WDFW recreational license that has its revenues deposited into the general fund.” He would like to have a study done to see if razor clams do move laterally as some suspect, but there is not a study being funded at this time. Such a finding would impact decisions on harvest allocations and possibly even closures due to domoic acid levels.

There have been estimates that when 10,000 people descend upon the Peninsula for a three-day razor clam opening, such as happened last weekend, that Pacific County will get up to $1 million added to the local economy.

“People of all ages, all physical abilities, and all levels of experience can enjoy clam digging while getting exercise and fresh air,” Downer added. “Name an activity that beats razor clam digging for bringing families together for an extended period time,” he challenged.

And of course there are the delicious meals of razor clams to be enjoyed, which alone makes the experience worthwhile for most people.