As an east coast transplant to Puget Sound (1987), I was gob smacked by the size of the salmon making their way up backyard creeks. But that was nothing compared to the size of clams lurking at the bottom of Puget Sound.
I’m talking about the geoduck—pronounced gooey-duck.
Duane Aikman Jr. holding geoduck (Photo by Destiny Wellman)
For my other coast followers, the geoduck is a striking, if not offensive underwater creature, bearing a not-so-subtle resemblance to an outsized male sex organ. The neck of the clam can extend three feet, far too large to tuck itself inside its curiously diminutive end shell that grows only seven to nine inches. Fundamentally uncovered its entire life, one wonders how such a meaty animal survives in the brutal underwater ecosystem of Puget Sound, with everything from sea lions to giant pacific octopus surveying the seafloor for something to eat. But survive it does. Found in the tide flats and just under the seafloor up to sixty feet below the surface, the geoduck is relatively abundant in Puget Sound and coastal Canada.
Destiny Wellman suited up (Photo courtesy of Destiny).
The geoduck is harvested by individual divers working in dry suits. The gear in total weighs between 80-100 pounds. Air is delivered from the surface via tubing as shown by the photo of Destiny kitted out in her gear. The divers use a wand that they stick under the sea floor that delivers a high-pressured water jet. When they do this the geoducks literally float up and the diver grabs them. The work is dangerous, but lucrative and is a major fishery in Puget Sound where geoducks thrive. Geoducks are the largest burrowing clam in the world and can weigh up to 10 pounds. A typical lifespan is 140 years, but they can live up to 160 years!
Gag postcard from the early 20th century featuring a monster geoduck!
AI fakery of the day!
As a keen collector of stuff, I am happy to say that I’ve been able to forge a relationship with geoduck divers who pick up cool old bottles while hunting geoduck.
Geoduck diver Will Swift found this early stoneware bottle under about 40 feet of water in a secret location in Port Gamble Bay.
To your average person, these bottles may not seem like much, but they are well over a hundred years old and tell a story of a time gone by. To a bottle collector, these bottles are worth their weight in gold. These bottles were found in Port Gamble Bay just off the Port Gamble Mill site by Will Swift and Chad Sullivan while diving for geoduck. The exact locations where these bottles were found are closely held secrets!
The stoneware bottle being held by Will is probably German in origin and were primarily made to hold either beer, seltzer or mineral water. It is from the days when Clipper ships visited Port Gamble.
Geoduck Diver Chad Sullivan with bottles he recovered from Port Gamble Bay.
He’s not talking.
Chad’s bottles are probably beer bottles from the steamship era and are at least 100 years old.
I traded with Will for the stoneware bottle. Chad was kind enough to gift me the two in this picture. I proudly display them all on a shelf at home.
