My interpretation is they have to dig their own clams. Last time out in January my 10 year old girl just could not dig them, so we shorted ourselves a limit and guess what! The fish cops pulled up and checked us at the truck, made sure they were in seperate bags and one asked us to count them out (bad cop), but the second (good cop) said we were good to go. Be careful and understand the rules, it may be worth a call to the department, the fine is not cheap for an extra limit.