Dear Stales: I tried your name in Yahoo! search box, and found several sites. The only one that might interest you was about clam digging in New Jersey. I think the clams in question are what Cape Codders call quahogs, which have a very thick shell. Anyway, the "stales" are long handled tools I would call tongs.

Clam tongs are used from a boat. One of the preferred
boats of baymen is the garvey. The clam tong handles,
called stales, work like scissors. A pin holds the stales
together so it can open and close the basket. The stales
can be different sizes depending on the tide. The tooth
bar is metal to dig in the mud. The teeth are on an angle
to dig.