Florida man saves massive, 214-year-old clam from the chowder

'We figured it was probably pretty special, so we didn’t want to kill it,' says man who discovered mega mollusc

The giant clam is believed to have started life in same year as Abraham Lincoln. Photo: Gulf Specimen Marine Lab

A giant clam that is said to be 214 years old has avoided the chowder pot after a man in Florida realised its age.

Nicknamed Aber-clam Lincoln after the 16th US president, who was born in the same year as the mega mollusc, the creature was dug up by Blaine Parker in Alligator Point, an off-the-beaten path beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

Mr Parker told the Tallahassee Democrat that he had been collecting clams to make chowder, a popular type of soup.

“We were just going to eat it, but we thought about it a while and figured it was probably pretty special. So, we didn’t want to kill it,” Mr Parker told the newspaper.

A man holds the giant clam, purportedly born in the same year as Abraham Lincoln. Photo: Gulf Specimen Marine Lab

He said the ocean quahog clam was so big that its shell could have been turned into a bowl, and the meat would have been enough for two chowder servings.

Mr Parker took the burly bivalve to Gulf Specimen Marine Lab, which posted several images on Facebook.

“Age can be calculated by the number of layers on the shell, with each layer representing a year; with this, Blaine counted 214 layers on Aber-clam Lincoln’s shell, meaning this clam was born in 1809, the same year as Abraham Lincoln, hence its name!” the lab explained.

Aber-clam is about 15cm long and weighs in at a 1.17kg, said the lab, which has now released it back into the ocean.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the oldest recorded clam was Ming the Mollusc, who was 507, and found off the coast of Iceland in 2006.

The giant clam was released back into the ocean. Photo: Gulf Specimen Marine Lab