Geoducks!

If you have never met the lovely geoduck (pronounced "gooey duck"), now is your chance to greet an excellent clam! First of all, I know what you are all thinking. And you are correct to think so. Yes, this clam looks like (I'll quote a family member) a "horse's penis". Ha ha ha! I think it is actually quite cool looking and I am proud to be a geoduck scientist-in-training. I have much to learn.



First of all, these lovely clams are ancient. They are very long-lived. Eating one of these clams is like eating your grandmother. Yup. In fact, there are a lot of sea creatures that we eat that are long-lived. Rockfish, orange roughy, Chilean sea bass, etc.... are all examples. This typically means that the species cannot reproduce fast enough to keep up with our hungry appetites and eventually we overfish the species. Geoducks, lucky for them, are not too popular in the USA. They are, however, super popular in China and this popularity drives the fishery here in WA. And this fishery, by the way, brings in the money. Commercial divers collecting the clams were fetching (just a few weeks ago) $13.50 a pound. One clam can weigh over two pounds, so the fishermen were pulling in $5000-$6000 from one day of diving. After seeing them get handed those checks I thought it was pretty obvious why fishermen fish. Of course, with money comes regulations. I am out there for a reason. I am supposed to observe the Tribal fishermen and make sure they follow the rules. I also weigh the catch, record the take home, make sure they don't go over the catch quota, and collect the taxes the Tribe makes off the fishery. All for a lovely clam!

Erine showing off a nice biggie

Ernie hauling in a bag of geoducks

Other news from the Barber-Dimond household is quite boring. We have moved. We are unpacking. We are hoping to go skiing next weekend and *maybe* ignore unpacking and go for a paddle tomorrow. Life is great.