Choosing the right
Geoduck grade
We created this buyer’s guide so industry professionals and buyers would have a common reference when discussing product availability and price.
Geoduck from Canada is one of the highest valued, and most unique seafood delicacies in the world. Our divers harvest from the cool, pristine waters of Canada’s pacific coast. Each geoduck is individually harvested and handled with great pride and care. British Columbia has become one of the world’s leading suppliers of high-quality geoducks.
Geoducks are nourished by the nutrients of B.C.’s coastal waters. The size, colour, and shape of each geoduck varies naturally. Following strict sustainable management practices, all geoducks that are harvested must be brought to market, thereby providing customers with product unique in size, colour and shape.
The Underwater Harvesters Association produced this guide to the physical variances in Geoduck from Canada. With this guide in hand, all members of the geoduck industry and buyers will have a common reference when discussing product availability and price. This visual guide also allows industry professionals and buyers to decipher Geoduck from Canada, and geoduck from other markets.
Geoducks are a natural product that grows in the wild. As a result, the overall size, colour and other conditions of their shell and siphon will vary according to their growing environment. As examples:
- a geoduck’s shell could have imperfections if it has grown in a rocky substrate; and,
- a geoduck’s siphon and/or shell could feature a darker colour overall or some staining when it grows in hard packed sediment that allows less oxygen flow.
Other factors that influence the size and appearance of a geoduck include:
- the location of the geoduck bed (commercial geoduck fishing location)
- the depth of burial in the ocean floor
- the depth of the water
- age
- genetics
- effects of predators
