Sadly, poachers are able to make a quick buck, thanks to the high demand of the delicious clams. Since the 1970s, the WDFW has been managing geoduck beds, ensuring that the population remains healthy and safe from over harvesting. With the average geoduck weighing two pounds, each year the State of Washington harvests nearly three quarters of a million geoducks each and every year. Locally, legally harvested geoducks sell for around $15 a pound. Those soaring prices have created an incentive for poachers back in Puget Sound, giving rise to an international black market.Ībout 90 percent of the geoducks harvested in the United States are sent to Asia, where they are served raw at sushi restaurants in Japan, used in soups and stews in Korea, or cooked in a fondue-style hot pot in China. Rising demand, especially among China’s growing middle class, has sent geoduck retail prices in Asia to as high as $150 per pound. According to the article originally published by PBS News Hour, Yet, the supply doesn’t seem to meet the demand, and a black market for the has been created that is making numerous local residents quite wealthy.

Geoducks (pronounced Gooey Ducks) are a huge source of revenue for Washington State, with legal sales of the bivalve wonders totaling over 22 million dollars annually, and 80 million when combined with private companies. According to a fantastic article by Katie Campbell of KCTS9/EARTHFIX, about 90 percent of the geoducks harvested in the United States are sent to Asia. Considered a delicacy in many Asian countries, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife is now attempting to shut down a major black market that ships these giant, phallic looking clams internationally. The mollusks, which are a native species to the region, are currently being poached in unprecedented numbers in and around Washington State’s Puget Sound. Pacific Hybreed’s advanced breeding methods will enable the commercial development of high-performing shellfish to supply regional, national, and global shellfish aquaculture markets.You wouldn’t think by looking at them, but the often giggle inducing geoducks in the waters of the Pacific Northwest are a hot commodity, so much so that there is now a huge international black market for the area’s most phallic creatures. Our proprietary breeding programs for Pacific oysters, Manila clams, Kumamoto oysters and other species will help secure a stable and sustainable supply of shellfish in the face of global climate change and the threat of emerging shellfish diseases.

Our mission is to meet the growing demand for farmed shellfish by creating tools and strategies to improve the yield and resilience of farmed shellfish and helping to advance the science of shellfish genetics. Farmed wild fish, shellfish and seaweeds are extremely susceptible to climate change, ocean acidification, and emerging diseases, leaving us ill-prepared for the needs ahead.īased in the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Hybreed is establishing the first commercial shellfish breeding programs for the benefit of U.S. Modern terrestial agriculture practices cannot be scaled without irreparable harm to our planet.

As the world population reaches 10 billion by the year 2050, a growing demand for the protein in our global food system will require innovation and the latest technologies to meet the needs of a hungry world.

Pacific geo duck