Ocean quahogs (Artica islandica)

Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) for Ocean quahogs:

• Juveniles and adults: Throughout the substrate, to a depth of three feet below the water/sediment interface, within federal waters from the eastern edge of Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine throughout the Atlantic EEZ, in areas that encompass the top 90% of all the ranked ten-minute squares for the area where ocean quahogs were caught in the NEFSC surfclam and ocean quahog dredge surveys. Distribution in the western Atlantic ranges in depths from 30 feet to about 800 feet. Ocean quahogs are rarely found where bottom water temperatures exceed 60 ^oF, and occur progressively further offshore between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras.