A Ketchikan-area geoduck farm wins a 20-year lease renewal

The geoduck — pronounced "gooey-duck" — is one of the odder animals in Alaska's waters: a giant burrowing clam with a fleshy neck that can stretch more than a meter, a body that can weigh a few pounds, and a lifespan that can top a century. It's also a delicacy, prized in Asian markets and priced accordingly. Off the south end of Revillagigedo Island, about 21 miles southeast of Ketchikan, a small farm has spent years coaxing them out of the seafloor.

That farm just secured its future. The state Department of Natural Resources renewed its lease on 7.41 acres of tidelands this week, giving Alaska Longneck Farms — the name a nod to the clam's famous siphon — another 20 years on the site. For most operations, a two-decade lease would be bureaucratic overkill. For a geoduck grower, it's about right: you're farming an animal that grows slowly and can live longer than the people tending it, so you need a long horizon to make it pay.

Behind the farm is Paul Fuhs, a name familiar in Alaska's maritime and civic circles. The renewal itself is routine — it doesn't expand the operation — and it will post on the state's public notice system for 30 days, giving commercial fishermen and others with a stake in state marine lands a chance to weigh in before it becomes final.