The goeduck is not a bird, as the name would suggest. It is a large clam found deep in the sand off the ocean shorelines of Washington, Oregon and northern California. Its name comes from an Indian word meaning “dig deep.” It is one of the longest living creatures in the animal kingdom. The oldest recorded one was 168 years old. It is also one of the largest clams, except for some deep-ocean giant clams that reach 500 pounds and may be up to 4 feet long.
The goeduck’s five-pound body bulges out from around the two halves of its seven-inch shell, which doesn’t seem to be large enough to give it full protection. But the Creator has not made a mistake in this design; He has well adapted it to its home beyond the shoreline.
Its body is always completely buried under about three feet of sand, but it has a siphon (tube) extending above the sand which collects water filled with oxygen and plankton on which it feeds. Fish may see the top of the siphon but leave it alone since they don’t know what’s at the other end, nor could they dig through the sand to reach it if they wanted to.
Twice a year, in spring and fall, there are two-day periods when this creature is exposed to danger. This is the time of extra-low tides, and only then can clam-diggers reach them. However, goeducks are not easy to find. The moment digging starts, the goeduck quickly pulls its siphon down, and the clam digger, digging through three feet of sand with a shovel and bare hands, often cannot locate the clam.
Because these large clams are now so scarce, people are not allowed to catch more than one a day during these two periods each year. But most clam diggers consider them well worth the effort because of the wonderful flavor of more than four pounds of clean, boneless clam meat. Regardless of how they are prepared and eaten, one clam supplies enough meat to make two good meals for most families.
As we have noticed in some of our other articles, there are many unusual creatures in the oceans. They all are a part of God’s creation, and when He brought them forth, He proclaimed, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas” (Genesis 1:2222And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. (Genesis 1:22)). They have continued to reproduce “after their kind” ever since. The Lord God declared that everything He made “was good,” and the creatures we see today are the very same as the first ones God placed on the earth so long ago.
His instruction to young people is, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:11Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; (Ecclesiastes 12:1)), and also, “Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God” (Job 37:1414Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. (Job 37:14)). These are wise instructions.
ML-03/01/2015