Suquamish, Wash. – For more than two decades, Joshua George, a member of Tribal Suquamish, has immersed himself in the Esmeraldas del Mar Salish waters that seeks an unusually phallic clam that is coveted to thousands of miles away.
George is a Geoding diver. Pronounced “Gooey-Duck” The largest burrow clam in the world has been harvested in the tides by the indigenous ancestors of George in the northwest of the Pacific since before the Europeans arrived.
In recent years, it has also become a delicacy in China, with the state of Washington sending 90% of its geepumes there, creating an export of American but lucrative seafood.
But the growing commercial war between the United States and China is now paralyzing an entire industry that delivers geipe pipelines, leaving the Washington state divers without work, Seattle exporters without business and Chinese fans with less of these clams.
“It is the first time in 24 years when I don’t know when or if we will return to work or if I have to find another job or what we are going to do,” George said.
The economic dispute driven by Donald Trump’s rate with China, which goes back to his first term, resumed quickly in February a few weeks after recovering the White House. In April, Trump had placed tariffs of at least 145% About China, which led China to retaliate with 125% tariffs in the United States
The main US officials are Ready to meet with a high -level Chinese delegation This weekend in Switzerland in the first important conversations between the two nations since the last tariffs were imposed, but it is not clear where those conversations will lead.
Enter the geopuitck, with a weight of approximately 2 pounds and so rooted in the local culture that is the Evergreen State College pet in Oympia. The fleshy mollusk is best described as sweet and salty, it is often cut raw for crispy sashimi in the west, while China consumers prefer to chew in sauteed or hot soups. The costs prior to the rate were as high as $ 100 per pound in restaurants, so it is a dish generally reserved for special occasions such as the Chinese New Year, or to celebrate a commercial meeting.
Unlike other products with a useful life and a standing inventory, the commercial war has had an immediate and direct effect on the delicate geipe pipelines, which are sent alive on the same day of harvest.
“The whole market, everyone had to stop,” said Jim Boure, general manager of Suquamish Seofoods, a company of the Suquamish tribe. “We begin to receive telephone calls from buyers saying that orders are canceled.”
The millions of pounds of geepumes sent annually to China come from two main sources: wild harvests in marine background extensions that are divided between the Department of Natural Resources of the State of Washington and the Indian tribes of the Puget sound treaty, and Tideland’s farms. State participation is auctioned to private exporters who often hire hired divers to harvest them.
At the end of April, the Washington state divers had only extracted approximately half of the expected harvest of state treaties, said Blain Reeves, manager of the Aquatic Resources Division of the State Natural Resources Department. Last year, the State and the tribes collectively reaped around 3.4 million pounds from Wild Washington Geoduck for sale. The State generated $ 22.4 million in revenues for its half of the clams, which was destined to pay aquatic restoration projects locally. The State does not track how much private farmers harvest.
“If only half of the pounds that were hired are harvested, then our income is reduced by half,” Reeves said.
The Suquamish operation does not have orders to harvest at this time, but it must still be kept up to date with maintenance to stay ready for businesses if China comes to call.
On a recent April day, George’s team made a fast trip to collect a handful of clams for state laboratory tests.
“When we are doing the job, and they are not all these other political things behind the scene and everything else, we love this,” George said, adding that diving, which takes place early in the day so that the geipe pipes are on a plane for the night, has allowed him to see their children grow.
The diver Kyle Purser said he appreciates his underwater work, but now he fears being removed.
“When you see your money disappear and you have families to feed and not know when you are going to get your next payment check, (it) very stressful,” he said.
The GEIPEPAK import market already faced a weaker demand in recent years due to the struggle of the Chinese economy to recover the impulse after the pandemic. While the tariffs have only exacerbated the problems for GEIPEPERT Sellers in Washington, there has also been an unwanted consequence: the US trade war has inadvertently promoted the Geanced Canadian business, which faces a mere 25% of the Chinese rate compared to 125% for 125% for the United States for the United States.
The state of Washington in the United States and the province of British Columbia in Canada are the two main places where wild geipe pipes grow naturally for commercial harvest. The two countries did healthy businesses mainly to the Chinese appetite for decades, partly because the amounts are limited. It is an intensive harvest in labor and very regulated, since the divers must go to several feet under the surface to dig for them.
“They love the fact that he knows how the sea,” said James Austin, president of the Submarine Harvesters Association of Canada. “It is a product that is really a success with the Chinese. It is about the wild coast. It is really prestigious.”
Austin said that there are 2.75 million pounds from Canadian Geop pipelines harvested in 2025, with an approximate value of $ 60 million Canadian dollars ($ 43.4 million dollars) in revenue.
While demand has been relatively low but still stable for Canada’s geipe pipelines, Austin said that they are now China’s main exporters, which has helped them negotiate higher prices as a result. For example, after Canada received a 25% rate in March, export sales prices fell to $ 12 per pound, and after the United States received a 125% rate in April, the Canadian geoductions are now sold for $ 17 per pound.
“We have no competitors at this time,” said Austin.
Yang Bin in Beihai Huaxiashoungang Health Industry Company in the city of Beihai in the province of Guangxi in China said that its important wholesale business no longer receives Geoduck from the United States
“We don’t care about the rates of us because we can obtain Geoduck from other countries with stable prices,” said Yang.
In his first week back to work since the tariff fight stopped in the state of Washington, Derrick McRAe and his brother rose around 800 pounds of wild geipe pipelines on just one day of April.
He put on a full -body diving outfit with an oxygen line tied to his boat to dive under the cold waters of an inner marine channel to the west of Seattle. In kneeling on the seabed, McRAE used a water spray gun to move the sand that covers the geipe pipes. In the sediment cloud, he felt his neck with his hand, pulling the clam and filling it in a network attached to him.
“We are waiting at the edge of our seats to see what happens next,” McRAe said.
In one of the southernmost entries, the farmer Ian Child said that the interruption of the tariff is not only hurting its results but the entire agricultural process. Usually, it places young Geoduks in the sand in the summer, but cannot mix new crops with existing clams without harvesting.
“I think the demand is still there for the product,” he said about China. “I think they still want it. It’s just a matter of where tariffs will land.”
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Associated Press’s researcher, Yu Bing, contributed from Beijing.
