While many people were celebrating the nation’s birthday on July Fourth, local clam diggers were celebrating the fact that the Scarborough clam flats were reopened after a six-week closure due to red tide and excessive rain.

On July 2 the state lifted the restriction, allowing clam diggers to go back to work, something that all of them had been looking forward to doing for quite some time.

In fact, the closure was so long many of them took regular jobs to help supplement their lost incomes. Kyle Violette, a student at the New England School of Communications in Bangor, took a job working at Denny’s.

When the flats first closed he admitted to being a bit happy to get some extra time off. However, as the closure grew longer he began to miss the job and the money. Soon he was forced work as a cook at Denny’s. He worked there for a couple of weeks and quit immediately after learning that the closure was lifted.

“This is nice and relaxing; it was 180 degrees at Denny’s,” Violette said, while digging clams Sunday morning on Big Spit, off Pine Point. “It’s been good at times, bad at times, and my back hurts all the time.”

While the closure hurt the bank accounts of nearly every clam digger, it may have helped with the clams themselves. Many diggers reported that the time off allowed the clams to grow larger and more plentiful than they had expected.

But despite the good digging and the busy summer months, clam diggers said the price for their product was down compared to the same time in past years.

One reason for the lower price has to do with public demand. Many clam diggers believe people’s interest in clams has been reduced because of the red tide. However, the extensive testing done prior to opening the flats ensures that the food is safe for consumption.

On the other side of the equation is the fact the clam diggers are digging more often than they normally would in order to make up for the lost time from the closure. This has created a supply that slightly outweighs demand, driving down the prices.

One person working as much as possible is Jimmy DiPietro, a full-time clam digger who took a job in carpentry in order to make some money during the closure. He too quit as soon as the closure was lifted.

DiPietro has been working both tides in order to earn extra money to pay off the debt he has accumulated during his time not working.

“You have to dig twice the amount as you would have because now that you’re back you’re trying to pay off the bills accumulated over the last six weeks,” DiPietro said.

Like other local clam diggers, DiPietro was not thrilled with the assistance the government offered to out-of-work shellfishermen. He said the low-interest loans were useless for him and many others in the business and he did not even bother applying for one.

Brian Boyt, Dan Willey and Nate Colpitts are all recent Scarborough High School graduates who are digging clams using student licenses and will be entering college in the fall.

For them clam digging provides a change to make some good money during the summer. But the closure also caused them to lose out on money. Still the students, like other clam diggers out on Sunday morning, were happy just to be able to work on he flats again.

“It’s good to be able to dig again,” said Boyt.

The students started digging last year and have now become better at it, producing higher volumes than before. This increased skill gives them confidence that they have a good summer despite the closure.

“We’re still going to make more than we made last year,” Boyt said.

Jimmy DiPietro digging clams off in Scarborough on Sunday morning.