*sigh* I used to go after these things all the time - at Lawson's Landing, near Pt. Reyes on the California coast. At low tide, I'd have to dig 3+ feet into the sand, then use a tube plunging mechanism I'd made to blow air into the hole to loosen the sand around the clams. There's otherwise just no way to get them loose without ripping them apart.
It was pretty cool, though, to return after a couple of hours with a big bucket full of gigantic clams. And oh, are they ever tasty!
Those root-like things you see stemming from the clams in the picture below are the "necks" of the clams. When you walk on the surface, water will squirt four feet high as the necks retreat. Maybe you remember seeing that happen in some of the Warner Bros cartoons!
You see how big the necks are when the clams are held. Now imagine them when they're extended, reaching the sand's surface - from more than three feet down!
It's enough to give even John Holmes an inferiority complex.
BTW, I always thought it was pronounced "Gooeyduck." I assume I was wrong, though there is no pronunciation guidance provided with this article.
Geoducks: Monster bivalves worth big bucks
It may not be pretty, but fans have an insatiable appetite for this Puget Sound denizen
7/18/2011
By Manny Howard
Business Week
The tribal police are tied up alongside the Ichiban, a broad, aluminum dive boat that bucks against its anchor line 300 yards offshore. Only one of the Ichiban’s two dive lines is running at the moment, trailing off the stern into the granite waters of South Puget Sound. The Ichiban’s captain, Craig Parker, stares intently as the tribal officer finishes his paperwork — capping off an inspection of the Ichiban’s safety procedures and a proficiency test to certify that all members of Parker’s crew are qualified to do their strange work 40 to 50 feet below the surface.
Marco Moreira, the executive chef of New York’s 15 East and Tocqueville restaurants, likes
to serve geoducks raw, with a bit of soy, olive oil and wasabi. \"I love it for its crunchy
texture as much as its flavor,\" he says.
“We did good,” Captain Parker barks over the growl of the compressors after the inspectors have gone. “Everybody passed inspection, and Connie did great.” Connie Whitener, who with her bookish demeanor seems more like a schoolteacher than a certified commercial diver, offers a shy smile, then tugs the collar of her parka against the steady rain. Like everyone on board, Whitener is a member of the 1,000-strong Squaxin Island tribe. It’s been a while since she’s worked a shift as a ducker, and she’d be prohibited from doing so if the inspectors failed her. Duckers dive exclusively for the giant, burrowing clams known as geoducks. According to Indian tribal law, you’re not a ducker if you can’t fill a 50-pound crate of clams in less than 15 minutes. Having filled her crate fast enough, Whitener will now be entitled to an equal share (split seven ways) of the day’s $25,000 harvest.
Full story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43687780/ns/business-us_business/
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
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