![]() Data is hard to come by on the current number of Indigenous scientists in the US. The US government, all the while, has deferred to Western scientists, not deep-seated native knowledge and technologies, still a lingering, systemic bias in 2018. ![]() That cuts especially close to home for Indigenous communities like the Puyallup, who despite being protectors of natural resources and stewards of sustainability, have historically been marginalized by non-native political and industrial forces. A growing body of research suggests that global warming and ocean acidification will exacerbate blooms of certain toxic algae like red tide, to the point shellfish like geoduck could become too poisonous for animals and humans to consume. Today, the geoduck has become a harbinger of climate change. The etymology of the common name traces to the Lushootseed word gʷídəq (“gweduc”), which translates to the phrase dig deep, although the suffix “-əq” may also mean “genitalia.” Any confusion on that point, I’m told, is due to mere dialectical differences. Geoducks look like disembodied infant elephant trunks, but one could be forgiven for thinking the animal resembles another sort of trunk entirely. A mature geoduck is typically the length of the average adult forearm, weighing a pound or two, though the animals, fixing themselves to the same spot in the seabed, away from predators, for life, have been known to reach 6 feet and up to 14 pounds. Native to the coastal waters of the northwestern United States, geoducks are bivalves with retractable, fleshy siphons for sucking in water and filtering nutrients before shooting the spent water back out. The Monitor’s assignment that day was to catch at least three geoducks for biotoxin analysis, to make sure that any animals harvested at the site were in fact safe for human consumption. It was flagged recently when a 1,300-pound shipment of geoduck (“gooey duck”), a type of large, edible saltwater clam, sourced from a Puyallup fishery and headed to China, was recalled due to paralytic shellfish poison, a toxic algal bloom phenomenon commonly known as red tide. The tract has been open for tribal harvest for three years, according to Monitor captain and Puyallup shellfish biologist Dave Winfrey. ![]() Geoduck in hand, Hozoji scoured the seafloor.
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