First timer? In this formerly once-a-day blog (and now more-or-less a twice a week blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48). I call this “landing.” I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean in the first paragraph), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.
Landing number 2058; A Landing A Day blog post number 476.
Dan – Beginning to climb back into the 150s (boo!) with my second OSer in a row, thanks to this landing in . . . WA; 51/48; 5/10; 4; 150.7.
Here’s my regional landing map:
My local landing map shows my proximity to Boston Harbor, Olympia, and the southern end of Puget Sound:
I landed in the watershed of Woodard Creek, which flows into Woodard Bay (a small arm of Puget Sound); which is connected to Henderson Inlet (a larger arm of Puget Sound, see map above); which is, of course, simply part of Puget Sound (11th hit).
Speaking of Puget Sound, here’s another landing map showing the entire Sound:
My Google Earth (GE) shot shows I landed in the woods, but in an area with some residential development (no doubt because of proximity to Olympia):
Here’s a StreetView shot from about a quarter mile east of my landing (from the north-south road you can see east of my landing, showing the driveway you’d likely use if you were attempting to visit my precise landing in the woods):
Zooming back a little, here’s what the southern end of Puget sound and the greater Olympia area looks like on GE:
Here’s yet another GE shot – this one, north of my landing, showing some of the Puget Sound water bodies (including Woodard Bay and Henderson Inlet mentioned above). Also note “Zangle Cove.”
While searching for my hook (after having no luck with Boston Harbor and even Olympia), I rather absent-mindedly Googled “Zangle Cove.” The first Google entry was entitled “Zangle Cove Story – Protect Our Shoreline.” In the finer print below the title was the intriguing phrase: “Geoduck farm in Zangle Cove.”
Geoduck farm? What the heck is that? Before discussing the Zangle Cove story, let me start with the pronunciation of geoduck. It’s “gooey duck.” Wow. Bizarro spelling, eh?
Anyway, here’s some text from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) podcast (part of a series that features weird sea creatures) about geoducks (be sure to read this – it’s fun):
“Today’s weird thing is the Pacific geoduck, which isn’t a duck, and it isn’t gooey. It’s a humongous Pacific Coast clam whose name comes from the word “gwe-duk” in the language of the Native American Nisqually Tribe; it means “dig deep.” Some settler who couldn’t spell wrote it down as “G-E-O-D-U-C-K” and the misspelling stuck.
“Now, this dude is the biggest burrowing clam in the world. It grows to about 3 feet and over 7 pounds, ’though fishermen report taking some 6-footers weighing more than 16 pounds—that’s as much your Thanksgiving turkey! And geoducks are some of the longest-living of all animals, reaching at least 168 years!
“But it’s their shape and their deep digging that make them really weird. Most of a geoduck sticks outside the little dinky shell as a very long neck, with two holes at the end like an elephant’s trunk. This neck pokes out of the geoduck burrow to siphon phytoplankton—tiny marine plants—for meals. And geoducks are wedged so tightly in the deep burrows that otters, fish, and other predators just can’t dislodge them. Except for humans.
“Some are harvested by divers with special tools, some in special aquaculture farms, and some are harvested on beaches when the tide goes out. Geoduck harvesting’s a lot of fun to watch because most people just can’t pry the stubborn critters out.
“Do geoducks taste good? You bet—at least once you get their tough skin off. And people in Washington State are so fond of the things that the Evergreen State College in Oympia adopted the geoduck as its official mascot!”
Here’s some more info from Wiki:
These clams were not fished commercially until the 1970s, but in recent decades a huge demand from Asian markets has developed, and the clams are now farmed as well as being harvested in the wild. The clams currently sell for large sums of money, which has made poaching a problem. Farming techniques are under scrutiny for their possible negative environmental impact.
Of course, my readers need to know what a geoduck looks like. Here’s a picture from the NOAA website:
Here’s another picture, from GeoduckRecipes.com:
If you want to cook a geoduck, you’ll need to visit this website!
Also from the NOAA website, is this intriguing photo of some guy digging for geoducks:
And how about the geoduck being the mascot for Evergreen State College in Olympia? Are you kidding me? (But I love it!). Here are the words of the Geoduck Fight Song (from the school’s website):
The Geoduck Fight Song
Words and music by Malcolm Stilson, 1971
Go, Geoducks go,
Through the mud and the sand,
Let’s go.
Siphon high, squirt it out,
Swivel all about,
Let it all hang out.
Go, Geoducks go,
Stretch your necks when the tide
Is low
Siphon high, squirt it out,
Swivel all about,
Let it all hang out.
FYI, the long fleshy appendage of the geoduck is a siphon (mentioned in the fight song). The geoduck sucks water in through its siphon, filtering out its food. It then squirts out the filtered water.
Here’s a picture of the College’s mascot, name of “Speedy Geoduck:”
As for the “Zangle Cove Story,” it’s a post by “Protect Our Shoreline,” an environmental group whose mission is “to protect the Puget Sound Habitat.” There are four commercial geoduck farming operations in Zangle Cove (at least there were in 2007), and Protect Our Shoreline objects to the operations, mainly centered on aesthetics, and the impact to recreational activities such as kayaking. Here’s a picture to show why they’re concerned:
Click HERE to view the entire post.
I’ll close with this sunset shot over Zangle Cove (likely at high tide), Panoramio by WRDrennan:
That’ll do it.
KS
Greg
© 2013 A Landing A Day
A Landing a Day 