Tim Wing
...Which sea animal lives an average of 100 years, weighs approximately 10 pounds at maturity and sells as a delicacy for $10 or more per pound in China?
This is a Geoduck. Aren't they beautiful!
Many people would fail to guess that we're talking about none other than the infamous
geoduck (pronounced "gooey-duck"), recognized as the
world's largest inter-tidal clam and found beneath the surface of many saltwater beaches in Mason County.
Being unrelated to a duck and not appearing particularly gooey, the geoduck got its name from early Native Americans. Simply translated, it
means "dig deep", which is what one must do in order to capture this elusive mollusk, which has earned honors as the deepest digging, the
biggest burrowing and quite possibly, one of the longest living clams in the world. Growth-ring analysis shows that many geoduck live for
more than 100 years, with the record being somewhere between 146 and 168 years (sources differ!).
This one is worth over $25.00!
When people see a geoduck for the first time, they may notice an interesting resemblance to a certain (super-sized) part of the male
anatomy. Often greeted with shrieks of disgust, awe and even downright shock, what the geoduck lacks in good looks and charm, it makes up
for as a gourmet delight in the kitchen and, in some cases, a valuable supplement to the waterfront property owner's annual income.
Several private property owners on southern Puget Sound shorelines have discovered that they can lease their frontal tidelands to commercial
geoduck growers. These growers will plant geoduck seed in PVC pipe, visit regularly to cultivate and grow the seed and then, in
approximately five years, they will harvest or “dig” the geoduck with industrial air guns and share the profit.
Your beach may be worth a fortune!
Beaches less than an acre in size have brought a net return of $40,000 after just five short years. Typically, property owners are paid 20%
of the commercial harvester's gross income from geoduck grown and harvested right in their own front yards.
Geoduck commercial harvest is only a couple of decades old - originating in the 1980s and created by a high demand in the Asian market.
Today, the Chinese and Hong Kong markets account for almost 8 million pounds of geoduck each year at a wholesale price of about $10 per
pound live in the shell.
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The Dream-Team brings home seven |
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Click here http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/187366_geoducks21.html to
read the Seattle PI story dated Saturday, August 21, 2004 and titled: "Cashing in on geoduck - Once chowder fodder, the giant clam can fetch
up to $24 a pop".
See Part 2 for "How to Dig Geoduck"
