Learn Something New! June 9 - What is a Geoduck?

This, my friends, is a Geoduck.(pronounced gooey duck)

When I was growing up my family spent summers in a little cabin on the beach up island. My brothers and I used to hunt geoducks(very tricky). When the tide goes out their long necks just barely break the sand surface, and usually have a little piece of seaweed attached to them. If you step on, or right next to them, they squirt a blast of seawater about four feet in the air, while their neck retracts down about three feet to where their shell and the rest of their body is. It was quite hilarious to an 8 year-old. Here's some more info about them:

The geoduck (pronounced gooey duck) clam is the largest burrowing clam in its natural range throughout Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington. Although a few individuals weigh up to 4.5 kg (10 lbs.), the average whole body wet weight is about 1kg. (2.2 lbs.) with an average shell length of about 195 mm (7 ¾ inches) (Harbo 1997). To the first-time observer, this clam could be considered as rather grotesque because its shell is not capable of encompassing the huge body.

Despite their appearance, the commercial value of this clam has significantly increased in recent years giving geoduck clams the current honour of being one of the most valuable commercial shellfish species harvested in British Columbia. Historically, geoduck clams were harvested for food in the Pacific Northwest by the native population and the clams currently support a prosperous commercial fishery in Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington. For example, between 1996 and 2000, the landed value of the geoduck industry in British Columbia was increased from about 36 million to 41 million Canadian dollars (for details see http://www.geoduck.org/Chart/Landings_Value.htm).

This represented a 20 fold increase in the wholesale value since 1981. The increase was mainly attributable to a substantial increase in the market value. Despite the increased market value, the total allowable harvest in British Columbia has been maintained at about 4 million pounds since 1996. The maximum yearly harvest quotas have been set in an attempt to conserve stocks thereby assuring the long term viability of the geoduck harvest industry in British Columbia. Although geoduck clams are very long lived, with a reported life span of up to 146 years (Harbo 1997), natural recruitment is poor. Thus, the commercial harvest of wild stocks is carefully controlled and curtailed. The proposed method of increasing the landings of geoduck clams without jeopardising the long term survival of the industry is to increase the numbers of geoduck clams available for harvest through enhancement and/or aquaculture.

(read more here)

That's one gross looking clam, Tikiwahine.

Nice report. I give it an A+.

That is one obscene looking mollusc. Did you eat them? :o

Schmama Lama used to make hamburgers out of geoducks when we lived on Vashon when I was a baby. I don't know if I ever ate them myself, I was probably too young.

Soooooo, is that a boy Geodick...oops, sorry... I mean duck.

Yup, Dawn is right, looks like dick taste like chicken.

I think I saw them using one on the Playboy channel.

We never ate them, but we did catch & eat a lot of crabs, clams & oysters.