"All this work to get my PhD, and all I do is make mud pies?" The benthic mud is checked for clam concentrations, then the clams are removed and subjected to their own analysis. Over the past ten years, the number and size of the clams has been shrinking. The amount of disolved oxygen and carbon matter in the mud has also been decreasing. Trying to figure out why is part of the reason we were in the Bering Sea in the winter.