Geoduck Harvesters Cry Foul

TACOMA - The state's decision to offer more geoducks for harvest will glut the market and force down prices, say some harvesters of the giant clams.

The state says it's just protecting its interests in a legal battle with Indian tribes over allocation of Washington's shellfish resources.

Geoducks have grown to an $18 million business in Washington, thanks in part to their popularity in Asia.

The state Department of Natural Resources regulates their harvest, issuing permits to high bidders in periodic auctions.

Douglas McRae of Gig Harbor bid $456,780 last month for the right to harvest 110,000 pounds of the clams. He said be thought he could handle that expense because of the high price geoducks fetch in Asia - $5 or $6 a pound.

But now the state plans to offer another round of contracts for geoduck harvests this year, which McRae says will drive down prices.

DNR, however, says it has to issue the new round of contracts to protect the state's interests in the court case against treaty fishing tribes.

The lawsuit is pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, after a lower-court judge split the annual geoduck harvest in half: 1.5 million pounds for the tribes, 1.5 million for the state-run harvest.

If the state's 1.5 million pounds aren't all collected by non-Indian harvesters, its lawyers might have a hard time arguing the allocations are unfair.