Economics of it

The sight of a geoduck may be funny but the economics of it is not. 

Commercial geoduck harvest began along the west coast of the U.S. in the 1970s. By the 1980s the market for this shellfish boomed and their nickname soon became "Puget Sound Gold".  This profitable market has continued to demonstrate growth into the 21st century. A single geoduck can be sold for more than $75 a piece in Asian markets and can go for about $10 a pound in the U.S. The total value of harvested geoducks amounts to $50 million a year, almost half of which comes from Washington State markets (Mason County, 2012). This value is illustrated in the diagram below, which reflects the overall increase in value of commercial geoduck stocks over the past decade. Any disturbance in this market from climate factors, such as acidifying oceans or rising temperatures, could have large-scale negative impacts on the Washington State economy.

(Original Figure)

This profitable industry is relatively new to the Pacific Northwest but is strictly regulated. There are an estimated 44,000 acres of geoduck beds in Puget Sound alone but the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) established a Total Allowable Catch of only 2.7% of the harvestable population (Businessweek, 2011). There is extensive coordination between the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), DNR, and the Washington Department of Health (WDH) when coordinating geoduck harvests. The WDFW identifies which geoduck beds are harvestable, the DNR then selects which beds geoduck farmers can harvest from, and the WDH identifies which geoduck beds are contaminated with paralytic shellfish poisoning and therefore fail to meet health requirements (Nobel).

Figure above: http://www.caseinlet.org/

This regulation of geoduck harvesting is no joke. Geoduck boat captains are required to keep detailed logs that document their location and how much geoduck they catch. Boats have to continually notify DNR of their location in order to make sure they are not wandering into restricted zones (Nobel). Occasionally DNR will conduct private dives to check geoduck beds in order to make sure the restricted areas are not being harvested. Then, at the end of every work day geoduck farmers have to weigh in their catch in order to prohibit overfishing (Nobel).