Baby geoducks being raised in a hatchery
For more information on the habitat, vegetation, and weather of this beach, please see the journal entry for May 13, 2012 here on iNaturalist. This observation was a surprising and exciting find for me. I have never seen a live geoduck before, and these geoduck siphons are the closest I've ever come. There were about six of them in a small group poking above the surface in the soft sand. They were visibly sucking in water, which is because the geoducks are trying to eat the plankton in the water. When poked, these little siphons would bury themselves in the sand and come back up after a few seconds. Geoducks are the largest bivalves in the Puget Sound, the largest burrowing clam in the world, and one of the longest living animals on earth (they can live up to 146 years).
The geoduck ( /ˈɡuː.iːdʌk/ "gooey duck"), Panopea generosa, is a species of very large saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Hiatellidae.