The attributing "mining" of Tricacnidae to tourists as a major problem
is baseless.  Undoubtedly one or two tourists have done that, but any
major depletion is not done by tourists (shell collectors, I presume
they mean)

In the past, in the market in Suva, Fiji, one or two Fijians were
selling Tridacna and had their meat in buckets including the mantles.
Not very appetizing looking.  So far as I know, the edible and
marketable part of Tridacnae is the muscle, which is about 3 or 4 inches
in diameter and also about that long in a 3 foot diameter clam.  In
Palau, when a Palauan man brought us out to shell in an area between
Koror and Pelileu, he enjoyed the muscle raw, cut up into small cubes.
We also thought it tasted good.  In Cook Islands, the boat drivers also
took a six inch Tridacna for a snack on the muscle.  The shallow reefs
in Itutake have thousands of dead Tridacna shells, and the clams you see
on the reef are under 6 inches.

The primary eaters of Tridacna from the open reef are undoubtedly the
local people, who greatly outnumber tourists on most of the reefs.  Most
of the dissappearance of Tridacna is undoubtedly from this cause, and
improved availability of the areas to local people with outboard boats.
 The sale of large shells is possibly a cause in some areas, but it is
much more likely a biproduct of killing the clams for local food.  The
eating of Tridacna is no more unethical than the eating of other clams
which are on the menu worldwide, but there has to be some control of the
process with Tridacna to insure their continuing availability.  There
has been control of commercial clams in most countries for a long time
for this purpose.

There are Tridacna cultivation labs on many Pacific Islands:  Palau,
Cook Islands, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Solomon Islands among others.  These
raise the Tricacna for two purposes:  (1) produce replacement clams to
keep up the reef population and (2) for sale of meat (primarily to
Japan) and shells to support the aquaculture activity.

At least in the past, in the area outside Koror, Palau, Commercial
Fishing Vessels would put out boats on the isolated reefs (not available
to most Palauans) where Tridacna were large and in such quantity that
they were separated by only a shell length or two.  In a short time, a
boat crew could insert a knife in a clam, separate the muscle from the
shell and put the muscle in the boat, about filing the boat in a
morning.  While I was in Koror, one boat had been captured by Palau
authorities and the ship wheel removed and the ship moored off shore
several hundred feet with the crew restricted to the ship.  The boat had
been in that status awaiting the arrival of a circuit judge for about a
half year.  I was told that the usual punishment was thousands of
dollars fines and loss of the boat.
--
                     Aloha from Wesley M. Thorsson
Editor of Internet Hawaiian Shell News, a monthly Internet Publication
           122 Waialeale St, Honolulu, HI  96825-2020,  U.S.A
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