Species and Habitat Outlines

Geoduck Clam
TAXONOMY

Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Veneroida
Family: Hiatellidae

 

ECOLOGICAL DATA

Distribution: widespread, in sheltered to moderately exposed brackish or outer coastal areas.

Habitat: fine mud through sand to gravel; may be abundant in eelgrass; burrows up to 1 m; planktonic larvae dispersed by currents; adults create semi-permanent burrow.

Tidal elevation: subtidal, from 8 to 120 m depth; may occur in lower intertidal; occurs higher in intertidal in north coast; most common between 9-18 m subtidal.

Food: suspension feeder; mainly phytoplankton, but also zooplankton and detritus.

Predators: sea stars, crabs, fishes, and birds.

GROWTH RATE

Slow; sexually mature by 3 yr; reaches 16 cm in 10 yr, little change in length in remaining years; may weight up to 4.5 kg.

FISHERY

Largest clam in B.C., supports valuable subtidal commercial, Native and small intertidal sport fishery; in 1986 commercial harvest was over 5,000 t valued at $4.3 million; sewage pollution and paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) have closed areas of the coast to harvesting.

REFERENCES

Anon. (no date). Clams of British Columbia. Fish. Oceans Can., leaflet: 4 p.

Breen, P.A., and T.L. Shields. 1983. Age and size structure in five populations of geoduck clams (Panope generosa) in British Columbia. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 1169: 62 p.

Fitch, J.E. 1953. Common marine bivalves of California. Calif. Dep. Fish Game Fish Bull. 90: 102 p.

Goodwin, C.L. 1973. Subtidal geoducks of Puget Sound, Washington. Wash. Dep. Fish. Tech. Rep. 13: 64 p.

Jamieson, G.S., and K. Francis. 1986. Geoducks, p. 18-22. In G.S. Jamieson and K. Francis. Invertebrate and marine plant fishery resources of British Columbia. Can. Spec. Publ. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 91.

Quayle, D.B. 1978. The intertidal bivalves of British Columbia. B.C. Prov. Mus. Handb. 17: 84-85.

Ricketts, E.F., J. Calvin, and J.W. Hedgpeth. 1985. Between Pacific tides. 5th ed. Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, Calif.: 325-328.

 

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