Known for their briny flavor and phallic shape, geoduck clams can cost up to $30 a pound. The geoduck industry is worth $55 million in British Columbia, with about 90% of sales coming from China. But with China’s slowing economy, could the geoduck industry be at risk of losing its biggest market?
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00:00Oh, beautiful geoduck.
00:02Look at that.
00:03This isn't what it looks like.
00:06Geoduck looks like, you know, grotesque.
00:10Known for their briny flavor and phallic shape,
00:14geoducks can cost up to $30 a pound,
00:17double the price of main lobster.
00:20But 50 years ago, the clams were worth less than 25 cents.
00:25The value of geoduck used to be in pennies a pound.
00:29It was not a profitable fishery at all.
00:32So what happened?
00:34The simple answer?
00:35Asia's booming seafood market.
00:39Geoduck harvesting is now a $55 million industry
00:43in British Columbia, with most exports going to China,
00:47where it's considered a delicacy.
00:50And in recent years, it's become a hit on social media, too.
00:54But with China's slowing economy,
00:56is the geoduck industry at risk of losing its biggest market?
01:01I'm getting a little nervous, but that's
01:03the risk with the fishing business.
01:04And how did it become so expensive?
01:10Traditionally, geoducks were part
01:12of the diet of indigenous communities
01:14on the Pacific coast of North America.
01:16The discovery of large deepwater geoduck colonies
01:20in the Pacific Northwest in the mid-1960s
01:23paved the way for the commercial geoduck fishing industry.
01:27The clams sold for about $0.20 a pound
01:30and were used in chowders or ground into bugger meat.
01:34Used to trade a crab fisherman for crab,
01:36and he would take my geoduck, the darker geoduck we would trade,
01:40and he would use it as crab bait.
01:42But in the 1970s, a Japanese-American exporter
01:45had the idea to market the clams in Asia.
01:49Soon, wealthy people in China and Japan
01:52were buying them up to show off at social events.
01:56By the 1980s, Japan was the biggest importer of geoduck.
02:06Japanese people, they love it.
02:08It was in his home country of Japan
02:11where chef Hibekazu Tojo tasted geoduck for the first time.
02:16Today, Tojo sources all of the geoduck
02:19for his Vancouver restaurant from local fisheries.
02:23Very important part is, of course, buy fresh one, live one.
02:30In Japanese cuisine, geoduck is typically prepared as sashimi.
02:35Some people don't like, you know,
02:37when I serve it to, oh, geoduck, oh,
02:40smell too strong, you know, very fishy, they said.
02:44But over five decades, Tojo has found different ways
02:48to prepare it for customers.
02:53Today, he's preparing a geoduck salad.
02:56Okay, I like to keep it fresh.
02:59So cut it here.
03:07Slowly come up.
03:09Clean here, just like this.
03:20So we're going to the boiling now.
03:23I don't want to boil too much.
03:28Maybe 30 seconds boiling.
03:32Then come out.
03:34Then you put it, I don't want to cook it, cook the inside.
03:38Then inside still fresh, raw.
03:42This geoduck, a lot of sand.
03:45So you must be wash it very well.
03:49Lots of sand inside.
03:55Tojo says because of its unique look and flavor,
03:58many of his guests want to try it.
04:01But his dishes have won them over.
04:06Before, before eating, tastes good.
04:10What's this?
04:11I said geoduck.
04:13Really?
04:14I don't like geoduck, you see.
04:16But now they love it.
04:19And also presentation, looks beautiful.
04:22People, oh, I want to try.
04:25I want to try.
04:26I want to try.
04:27I want to try.
04:28I want to try.
04:29I want to try.
04:30I want to try.
04:33But while Tojo's Japanese geoduck preparations
04:36are a hit in Vancouver,
04:38the clam's popularity in Japan itself waned in the 1990s
04:42following an economic crash.
04:44Soon, China took over as the biggest importer of geoduck.
04:50In fact, about 90% of what this team harvests today
04:55will be sold to buyers in China.
04:58We're headed to Savory Island.
05:04Where we're going is actually an enhancement site
05:07that the Underwater Harvesters Association set up years ago
05:12to help create more stock of geoduck.
05:17Geoducks are rare.
05:19They only grow in specific waters
05:21along the west coast of North America.
05:24One of the hotspots is in Canada,
05:27off the coast of British Columbia.
05:30Eric Jacobson works
05:31with the Underwater Harvesters Association,
05:34a non-profit organisation that represents
05:3755 geoduck licence holders in British Columbia.
05:41When I first started, it was,
05:43didn't know much about geoduck.
05:44So it was very much a mentorship type of training
05:47where it's time on tools, time in the water.
05:52Today is one of the last harvests of the year.
05:55We generally are shooting for 1,000 pounds a day or more.
06:02Geoduck fishers harvest from both wild and farmed beds.
06:06It takes five to seven years
06:08for the clams to grow big enough for commercial harvest.
06:11So this site that we're going to in particular
06:14was planted in 2013.
06:16So these plants are 11 years old
06:19and they should be around one and a half pounds.
06:22That's usually around 850 or 900 individual pieces.
06:27Since geoducks can only be harvested by hand,
06:30skilled divers are the backbone of the industry.
06:33It can take months to learn how to pull the clam
06:36from the sea floor.
06:40I guess I did like one year and I was like super terrible.
06:42And then the next year I was like dramatically improved.
06:45When you start, it's hard to get a duck out here.
06:48You're digging and digging and not getting it out,
06:50but once you...
06:52fish to like hundreds of pounds,
06:54it starts coming out pretty easy.
06:57Travis Poulsen has been diving for geoduck
07:00for the last 12 years,
07:02but they're not so easy to come by.
07:04That's because geoducks bury themselves in the ocean floor.
07:11They're not showing, then you're running around lots
07:13and not getting any ducks
07:14and it can be a little frustrating.
07:17Divers use a stinger to pump water into the sand,
07:20which uncovers the clam so they can gently pull it out.
07:24But James Austin,
07:25the president of the Underwater Harvesters Association,
07:28says that collecting geoducks isn't the only thing
07:31divers have to worry about.
07:34One of the most common risks divers face
07:36is decompression sickness.
07:39This happens when they transition
07:41from a high-pressure environment
07:43to a low-pressure one too quickly.
07:45As a diver moves deeper underwater,
07:47nitrogen bubbles collect in their body.
07:50They need time to release those
07:52before they reach the surface.
07:56The diver risks serious injury or even death.
08:02I stopped diving because I got,
08:05not just once, but several occasions,
08:08decompression sickness.
08:09I lost my balance for about a year.
08:11I couldn't walk in a straight line.
08:14So if it happened to me again,
08:15I probably would have done worse and possibly failed.
08:19To prevent this, divers limit the time spent
08:21collecting geoducks underwater.
08:24For the area that we're in right now, 40 feet,
08:28you know, they could do 90 minutes,
08:29take an hour and a half,
08:31and then do another 75 minutes to an hour.
08:34The deeper you go, the less bottom time you get.
08:37Okay.
08:45It's a race against the clock
08:47once the geoducks are on the boat.
08:50That's because the clams are most valuable
08:52when they're still alive.
08:54We used to sell it as a fresh but not live.
08:57And so now it's only a live product.
09:04Once they're on the boat,
09:05we'll generally put a cover on them
09:07and wet them down with a hose.
09:09Just keeps them cool and moist during transport
09:12until we get to the truck where they're unloaded
09:14and put it in a refrigerated truck.
09:17Geoducks are separated and ranked on a grading scale
09:20with A being the best.
09:23Several factors affect their grade,
09:25like color and any blemishes or cracks.
09:28And of course, size matters.
09:32Generally, you're looking for a nice white shell,
09:34nice white meat.
09:35You can see that these ones are fairly white.
09:38This one's a little darker.
09:39You can see the shell here.
09:41It's also a little darker,
09:42whereas on these ones, it's quite a bit lighter.
09:47As they get older,
09:48they can start to have different varieties
09:51of visually things that are unappealing.
09:56The China market is quite sensitive
09:58to the different grades.
09:59All the grades have different pricing.
10:01Most of today's harvest
10:02will be flown directly to buyers in China
10:05as early as tonight.
10:07They're very sensitive to environmental changes,
10:10so we have to have climate control
10:12all the way from the vessel to the truck to the plant.
10:15That was a lot of innovation to shipping them
10:19to make sure that they arrive healthy and alive.
10:22It arrives into the China market alive,
10:25and it's good there for about three to five days
10:28in the markets in China.
10:29That refrigeration is pricey.
10:32It costs roughly $7.3 million a year
10:36to ship geoduck overseas.
10:39These transport costs are a big part
10:41of the reason the clams are so expensive.
10:43In British Columbia, a geoduck costs about $18 a pound.
10:48Some high-end restaurants in China
10:50sell it for eight times as much.
10:54Since the 1990s, China's love for geoduck,
10:57especially during holidays,
10:59like Lunar New Year,
11:00has kept the industry in British Columbia
11:03booming.
11:04We are very dependent on the Chinese market.
11:06It's hard to replace that demand.
11:09The Chinese economy has got some hiccups right now,
11:11and I'm hoping that that can get sorted out,
11:14but it's definitely,
11:16the economy has been not as strong
11:18as it used to be in the past, for sure.
11:21With rising unemployment rates
11:23and unstable real estate and stock markets,
11:26more Chinese households are choosing to save
11:28rather than spend on luxury goods like geoduck.
11:32As the economy is slowing,
11:33incomes are going to go down,
11:35the mood, economic mood is going to go down,
11:38and that feeds into the demand for the commodity.
11:41The issue here is that China is such a big market
11:46that even such adjustment may not be able to make up
11:50for the potential decline
11:52that we are going to see from China.
11:55The Underwater Harvesters Association
11:58says this economic slowdown
11:59has caused a downturn in sales
12:02of geoduck to China.
12:03But shifting demand isn't the industry's only concern.
12:08Canada is working to protect its coastal environment
12:11through the 30 by 30 initiative,
12:13a plan to conserve 30% of the country's coastline by 2030.
12:18Part of that commitment is the Northern Shelf Plan,
12:21which focuses on establishing marine protected areas
12:24throughout coastal British Columbia.
12:27James says this could have negative effects
12:29on BC's geoduck supply.
12:32It is almost the entire North Coast,
12:34and it's the most productive areas
12:36that we harvest of geoduck.
12:38That is the areas that have been targeted to close.
12:43The Underwater Harvesters Association
12:44says these regulations could cut off
12:47nearly 40% of the harvestable areas
12:50and slash the industry's revenue by $20 million.
12:54These are jobs that are relying on the ocean and the land,
12:57and those are the areas that are surrounding your coast.
13:00But the Canadian government says these measures
13:02can provide better protection for marine species
13:05and help them adapt to climate change.
13:08Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans
13:11told Business Insider it has worked
13:13with commercial and recreational fishers
13:15on the MPA Network Action Plan
13:17and will continue to do so once it's implemented.
13:21The reason I support protection
13:24is that it is like buying insurance for a business, right?
13:28You know, it's painful to pay the premium,
13:30but the human need it.
13:33That's when it's the best day, right?
13:35So how we talk about protection
13:38is actually to create resilience
13:41and to support the whole system
13:43so the industry can be protected when you have shocks.
13:48Shocks like the growing danger from red tides,
13:51occurrences when algae in seawater
13:53grow out of control and become toxic.
13:56This causes paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP,
14:00in animals that eat algae, like geoduck.
14:03So PSP is something that is actually getting worse
14:08in our environment.
14:10We've had an area on the west coast of Vancouver Island
14:13that has had PSP since June.
14:16When PSP levels are too high,
14:18the geoducks are considered dangerous
14:20for human consumption and can't be sold.
14:23And if red tides become more common,
14:26they could limit the supply of geoducks available for sale.
14:29I'm getting a little nervous,
14:30but that's the risk with the fishing business.
14:33It's caused issues for the geoduck industry before.
14:36In 2014, China imposed a five-month ban
14:40on geoduck from the US
14:42after finding high levels of PSP in two shipments.
14:46The Underwater Harvesters Association
14:48spends $750,000 on PSP sampling every year
14:54to prevent this from happening.
14:57It's a big concern for us,
14:59and we really try to work around it.
15:01We have so much time and effort spent on PSP sampling
15:05to ensure that we're not sending anything that's contaminated.
15:09But Rashid says the best way
15:11to mitigate these environmental issues
15:14is to address them at the source.
15:17The way to deal with it
15:19is not to insist that you don't need regulation.
15:23So they need to combine forces
15:25to really try to deal with this.
15:28Taking good care of the natural system is crucial.
15:32Without a geoduck, there's no show,
15:33there's no business, no revenue, no nothing.
15:36And methods like this have worked before.
15:39When warming waters and reduced oxygen
15:41killed nearly all of Baja California's
15:44pink abalone population in 2010,
15:48stopping a nearby protected area
15:50helped replenish the region's population.
15:52But if it's done well,
15:53actually, in the long run and medium term,
15:57it is going to support the fishery.
15:59So we get that infinity benefit.
16:02As for demand, he says the geoduck industry
16:05has the potential to regain its momentum in China.
16:09I don't think China's decline
16:11is going to be as deep as that of Japan.
16:15It was a big burst, you know,
16:17so the market can come back also, even in China.
16:21So they shouldn't lose hope.
16:23There were positive signs of growth for China in 2024.
16:27James is confident that China's economy
16:29will fully bounce back
16:31and give geoduck a boost there once again.
16:34Once the economy turns around in China,
16:37it might not happen overnight,
16:38but the economy in China will come back.
16:41There's just too many people there.
16:43In the meantime,
16:44the association is expanding into new markets,
16:48working to build demand outside of China.
16:51We are currently shipping
16:53and developing markets into Europe.
16:55We've done promotions in Paris.
16:57We've done promotions in Holland.
16:58We've done promotions in London
17:00to raise awareness of Canadian geoduck.
17:03So we are working on that.
17:05My hope for the future is that we can continue
17:09the very good, sustainable fishery that we have today.