#Geo duck beach washington driver#

An average clam weighs about two pounds and can fetch up to US$100 per pound overseas.ĭemand in Asia is prompting shellfish farmers to grow more of the clams along Washington’s private tidelands. That is double the volume and value exported in 2008. Last year, the US exported US$74 million (S$97.6 million), or about 4.99 million kg, worth of live wild and farmed geoduck, mostly to China and Hong Kong. She added: “They want to consume the higher-valued seafood items, and geoduck is one of them.”

#Geo duck beach washington driver#

A big driver is the growing middle class in China,” said Gina Shamshak, an assistant economics professor at Goucher College, who has researched the geoduck market. Within hours, the geoduck (pronounced gooey duck) is packed live on ice at nearby Taylor Shellfish Farms - on its way to be served raw as sashimi or added to hot-pot dishes to satisfy a growing appetite for the unique Pacific Northwest delicacy. King dodges the spray, already using a water hose to loosen sand and harvest the next one. The mollusk squirts water from its long obscene-looking neck. HARSTINE ISLAND (Washington) - Mr John King plunges his arm up to his shoulder into the mudflats of Puget Sound, roots around and soon pulls from the muck the world’s largest burrowing clam.