Paphia malabarica is an important clam species, which has formed vast beds in the Kalbadevi estuary (Shirgaon creek) and Kajali estuary (Bhatye creek), Ratnagiri. They are exploited here commercially throughout the year for local as well as external markets due to the heavy demand. This study was undertaken to assess seasonal variations in the quality of the meat of clams by estimating the condition index and percentage edibility. Higher values were recorded during the monsoon (June^August). A rapid decline was observed in the edibility values from November onwards. Higher condition index and percentage edibility were recorded from June to November, indicating the high quality of clam meat.

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The blood clam, Tegillarca rhombea (Born, 1778), also known as blood cockle, is one of the commonly found clam along the south west coast of Maharashtra, India. Present work analyses the age and growth of this clam. T. (A.) rhombea was observed to attain extreme length of 67.5 mm during the sampling period from February 2014 to January 2015 (except June-July) and the analysis of observed and extreme length by FiSAT showed that the clam could attain extreme length of 70.58 mm. The length of 64 mm was attained at the end of the first year and 77 mm at second year. L value was 90.28 mm and growth constant (k) was 1.15 monthly. The recruitment was observed in December (Projected values). The cumulative frequency analysis showed that the males reach first maturity at 22 mm and females at 24 mm.

The blood clam Tegillarca (Anadara) rhombea is one of the important bivalves that show the presence of haemoglobin in its blood as against haemocyanin that is present in other bivalves. The haematological characteristics of this clam found along the south west coast of Maharashtra, India were studied from February 2014 to March 2015, excluding June-July 2015 due to heavy monsoon, in randomly selected specimens. The blood showed the presence of red blood corpuscles with round nucleus, white blood corpuscles with kidney bean shaped nucleus and non-nucleated platelets. The average count of RBCs was 1.76 X 10 9 per ml, WBCs 4.87 X 10 6 per ml. and platelets were 66 X 10 8 per µl. Haemoglobin (Hb) was found in the range of 2.03 to 8.87 gdL -1 and seen to be increasing with size. The general trend in the relationship between blood parameters and body size is that the bigger the animal, the higher the values of its haematological parameters