Farming of giant 'gooeyduck' clams gets B.C. approval

The B.C. government has issued its first commercial licences for geoduck clam farms around Savary and Hernando islands in the Straight of Georgia just across from Campbell River.

But New Democrat Gregor Robertson said Thursday the government should reconsider the licences. He's a member of the government's special committee on sustainable aquaculture.

Geoducks are the largest burrowing clams in the world, weighing in at an average ofhalf a kilogram to one kilogram at maturity, with some specimens weighing 7.5 kg and reaching as much as two metres in length. Theyhave a life expectancy of more than 140 years.

The name for the clams comes from a Nisqualli First Nation word meaning "dig deep" andis pronounced "gooeyduck."

Concerns that farming may harm wild population

About 95 per cent of the market for geoduck clams is in China, which up to now has mostly been supplied by the digging of wild clams.

In licensing the farms, Robertson said the government has made an uninformed decision.

"Approving these licences basically undermines the work of the aquaculture committee. We've got a lot of unanswered concerns and questions about geoducks," he said.

"We don't have any independent science to look at here, and we're in the middle of our work. All of a sudden we're introducing a whole new species when we're in the middle of our process."

Robertson said farming could potentially endanger the wild population of the clams.

The three farms that have been approved cover more than 1,000 hectares of seabed around the two islands, according to Robertson.