[1] Found in atoll lagoons throughout the Indo-Pacific including Madagascar, India, Viet Nam, China, Philippines, Tarawa, Malaysia, Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Tuvalu, Fiji, Japan (up to Kii Peninsula, Honshu), and Vanuatu.

[5][6] This small surf clam may occur in abundance on high intertidal lagoon beaches.

Archeological evidence indicates that Atactodea striata were used as a subsistence food by the Lapita, a Neolithic people of the South Pacific, at least as early as 4,700 years ago.

Women fishers walk the shoreline and shallows collecting Atactodea along with a variety of other common clams, bivalves, crabs, chitons, sea slugs, anemone and octopus.

[10] On Tarawa, indigenous people harvest Atactodea striata as a preferred baby food because of its small size.