Clams, also known as round clams, hard shell clams, or quails, are edible marine bivalve mollusks native to the east coasts of North and Central America, from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatan Peninsula. It is one of many unrelated edible bivalves, commonly referred to as clams in the United States. Hard clams are common throughout New England, northern Canada, and the East Coast of the United States to Florida; But they are particularly abundant between Cape Cod and New Jersey, where sowing and harvesting them is an important form of aquaculture business. For example, this species is an important member of the benthic community of suspended feeding animals in the lower Chesapeake Bay.