MAKE WAY FOR GEODUCKS!

 As I stroll down the beach at Surfside, I’m always on the lookout for the Texas State Shell, the Lightning Whelk. Mildred Tate and the Brazosport Museum, with the help of Senator Buster Brown, were instrumental in getting the Lightning Whelk named the Texas State Shell. Unique to the Gulf coast, it’s the only marine mollusk that naturally opens to the left, whereas other spiraling shells around the world open to the right. Lightning whelks can grow up to one foot in length. They have existed along our coastal waters for sixty million years! I have yet to find a pristine whelk to add to my collection of shells, but I keep looking.

I have collected many shells from the Pacific Coast which I have stuffed into my suitcase on return trips from my home state of Washington. Washington does not have an official state shell, but if it were up to me, I would choose the “boss clam of North America,” the geoduck. In fact, one of my treasures is an eight-inch geoduck shell dug up by my Grandfather Cruver almost a hundred years ago.

Do you know what a geoduck is? If you do, I’m surprised. You must have spent some time in the Northwest or maybe toured Pike Place Market on the Seattle waterfront. The geoduck (gooey-duck) or Panopea Generosa is a long-necked clam. You will find them in the Pacific Ocean and on beaches in the Puget Sound. It’s quite the fascinating bivalve mollusk. It has a long neck, or siphon, which looks rather indecent upon closer inspection. Its claim to fame, besides its appearance, is that it’s the largest burrowing clam in the world! It’s actually quite difficult to dig up, since it burrows three to four feet deep in the sand. It’s heavy, too. Geoducks can weigh between three to ten pounds. The neck can extend from the clam beyond three feet. Just like a tree, you have to count the rings on their shell to determine how old they are. And believe it or not, they can live up to 168 years!

I must confess, I have never eaten a geoduck. They are consumed as most clams, in chowder, sautéed in butter or wine, or eaten raw. Apparently, they are sweet, crunchy, and considered a delicacy, especially in China. Ninety percent of the geoduck harvested in Washington is sold to China. While geoducks in Washington sell for $30 a pound, in China they sell for a whopping $150. Unfortunately, China has recently banned geoducks from the PNW since they have been found to contain high levels of inorganic arsenic. The Chinese ban has caused a financial loss for Pacific Northwest native tribes, such as the Suquamish near Seattle.

As a child, I often went clamming for little neck clams and butter clams. What fun it was to pile into our speed boat and zoom over to “Dead Man’s Island” (Cutts Island State Park) to dig for them. They were small, easy to dig, and fit in the palm of your hand. I don’t ever remember my dad digging for geoducks, but my grandfather sure did. I have an old photograph of my grandmother, Adeline, hanging on my wall at home. It was taken in the early 1900’s. She’s wearing a white dress and looks quite prim and proper, and that’s just how I remember her, as a woman of decorum. But in this picture, she’s sitting on the beach, surrounded by twenty geoducks, their necks strung out over the log. Very indecorous indeed! She would be scandalized to know that I have published a picture of her in Brazos Life surrounded by long-necked geoducks. Someday, when we meet again in Heaven, I hope she will forgive me. My grandfather, however, would get a kick out of it. I can just see him digging down four feet in the sand, chasing after that 100-year-old geoduck, grabbing it by the neck, and triumphantly passing it to my grandmother. He might even have chuckled at her expense. If you search Pacific geoduck on the internet, I promise, you’ll have a good laugh, too!

 Pacific Geoduck

by Lauri Cruver Cherian

You are really quite alarming

Panopea Generosa

Long, soft, fleshy

Encased in a huge white clam shell

Great effort is taken to chase you down

deep into the sand

scoop you up

and laugh at what you resemble

 Poems of the Point © 2022 by Lauri Cruver Cherian

 *Photograph: Digging Geoducks at the Beach, picture of Adeline Cruver in Gig Harbor, Washington circa 1910, courtesy of Roy Cruver Sr.

Published in The Facts, Brazos Living, September 24, 2025