Settlement Over Geoduck Poaching

Washington State has settled with a Canadian company that allegedly conspired with a convicted poacher to steal more than 65 tons of geoduck from South Puget Sound. AG McKenna Announces Criminal Profiteering Settlement with Clear Bay Fisheries, News Release, Nov. 1, 2006.

Under the settlement agreement, Clear Bay Fisheries agreed to pay $112,500 in restitution to the State and release its liens in a vessel that had been used in the poaching operation. Clear Bay Fisheries and its officers also agreed to be permanently banned from engaging in the shellfish business in Washington. Clear Bay denies all liability and made no admissions of liability in settling with the state.

The market value of the stolen clams was about $1.5 million. (That's a lot of clams!) The man who supplied the geoduck is serving a 14-year sentence for "theft of geoduck, trafficking in poached shellfish and other crimes."

Photo: Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. Of course I'm not suggesting that the young man in the picture is a poacher: I just wanted people unfamiliar with the world's largest burrowing clam (and Evergreen's mascot) to get an idea of scale.