Geoduck clam

About Geoduck Clam
This huge, funny-looking soft-shell clam hails from the Pacific Northwest. It averages 3 pounds in weight and is distinguished by a long (up to 18-inch) neck (siphon) that extends from its 6-inch shell, The neck can be cut or ground and used in chowders. The body meat, when sliced, pounded and sautéed, resembles Abalone.

Geoduck clam, scientifically known as Panopea abrupta, is a member of the Hiatellidae family and it can usually be found in the northern pacific coasts the geoduck clam is the largest intertidal clam and it can be found at depth of ten to eighty feet. Geoduck clams usually bury themselves up to one meter in sand or other substrates. The medium weight of a geoduck clam is of one kilogram but huge geoducks can reach up to four and a half kilograms and the shell has a medium length of approximately twenty centimeters. Geoducks have a long live; they usually live for about one hundred years. In the first five years of their life they grow for about one inch per year and at the age of five or six they weight about one and a half kilogram. Geoducks survive by feeding themselves with marine algae including diatoms and flagellates and they are eaten by sea stars, crabs, fishes and birds. The muscle inside the geoduck is thin and it may reach a length of twenty centimeters. The two parts of the shell are always open because the body and siphons are too big to be stay inside. The geoduck is different from other clams because it has no teeth.