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Geoduck
Geoduck or gooeyduck is the wonderfully slurpy slang word for a tasty clam of Canada's west coast, one that inhabits the saltwater tidelands of our Pacific waters.It was not named because the glistening innards reminded someone of a duck pressed into a goo. One may dine on that in Paris. The word is from the Nisqually language, from which it was taken into Chinook Jargon, the old trading language of southern British Columbia. The gooeyduck is the largest burrowing bivalve in the world, and that habit caused the Nisqually tribe to call it gwe-duk or dig-deep. Its very deep burrows make it a tricky clam to harvest. The geoduck (pronounced GOOee-duck) can attain a mature weight of more than seven kilograms and have a neck as big as a fire hydrant.
There is already a black market trade in these clams which are illegally shipped to Hong Kong and Japan where a single gooeyduck sells for more than sixty Canadian dollars. Japanese prize them especially in geoduck sashimi, an example of a traditional Japanese dish (bite-size slices of raw geoduck) now made with this Canadian clam. Maybe we could induce our transPacific world-mates to put little leashes on the giant clams and trundle them around in wheeled aquaria? Perhaps they could bow to the gooeyducks throughout the day, instead of gobbling them up with such gusto? If you think wolfing down geoducks is cruel, do keep in mind that there is still a brisk market in the isles of paradise for Hawaiian broiled puppy.
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