Hunting For Longorones On Panama’s Azuero Peninsula
(costaricapages.com) Panamanians who live in coastal villages often rely on the sea to earn money and feed their families. Fishing is a common practice in Panama, but there are a variety of other delicacies Panama’s Pacific Ocean offers on its menu.
There are a variety of shellfish that are popular in Panama. One type is known as longorones or razor clams. These long tubular shellfish are great sauteed in garlic or cooked in a soup or stock. Harvesting these creatures is also part of the fun.
To find longorones, you have to wait until there has been a high tide and then the water recedes quite a bit. On certain beaches, the low tide will expose rocks that are usually submerged in the ocean. Many Panamanians use quick lime to encourage these shells to surface, though unfortunately that practice also kills other sea creatures in the immediate area.
The quick lime is diluted with water, and a small container is used to douse a small area of rocks. If there is a longoron present, a long spray of water will shoot up from the sand, not unlike a water gun trigger being pulled from underground. The longoron then surfaces and if you have a quick hand, you can grab the shell before it sinks back down in to the sand.
On a good day on some of Panama’s Pacific beaches, one can walk away with tens of dozens of longorones. If you have never tried these great shellfish, they certainly are worth a taste!
