When Criminals Clam Up
Black marketeers invade the shellfish racket, and officials try to stop them.
By GEOFFREY NORMAN
"...It would seem to be a familiar tale of tough-guy law enforcement, with a plotline somewhere between "Kojak" and "CSI." Lawmen track down leads, sift through evidence, set up stakeouts, work informers, cut deals with low-lifes and work their way up the food chain to bust the big guys or expose a conspiracy. They do everything that cops do except shoot somebody—and you get the sense that a little bloodshed is within the range of possibility since the people they are out to bust are not all that fastidious about violence themselves, hiring muscle to beat up rivals and setting fire to the operations of competitors.
But it is all about clams.
To be precise, it is all about geoduck (pronounced "gooey duck") clams—large, ugly creatures that can grow to more than 10 pounds and yet, to certain palates, possess a delicate, appealing taste. In "Shell Games," Craig Welch tells the oddly riveting story of the black marketeers who trade in geoduck clams and of the law-enforcement officials who go to extraordinary lengths to thwart them.
Geoducks are found, Mr. Welch tells us, principally in the waters of Puget Sound, in Washington state's northwest corner. They have not always been a staple of fine tables, he notes, but by the late 19th century they had come to be considered a delicacy. Among the most bountiful of their collecting grounds were the beaches of the Pacific Northwest. By the mid-20th century, geoducks had been overharvested, and even an industrious beachcomber had trouble finding one. The government eventually made it illegal to sell geoduck clams in markets and restaurants, killing the supply side of the market.
Then, in the 1970s, divers discovered geoducks in the deeper waters of the Puget Sound, and something of a clam rush followed. To protect the geoduck population from another case of overharvesting, the government stepped in again, imposing stiff harvest limits. They were soon ignored, especially when global markets opened up. The Chinese and the Japanese are exceedingly fond of geoducks and pay handsomely for them. The Japanese carve the clams into small portions for sashimi, and the Chinese slice them up "for a type of fondue known as hot pot." An illegal trade in geoducks, complete with smugglers and criminal cartels, was inevitable. ..."
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“It would seem to be a familiar tale of tough-guy law enforcement, with a plotline somewhere between "Kojak" and "CSI." Lawmen track down leads, sift through evidence, set up stakeouts, work informers, cut deals with low-lifes and work their way up the food chain to bust the big guys or expose a conspiracy. They do everything that cops do except shoot somebody—and you get the sense that a little bloodshed is within the range of possibility ... Craig Welch tells the oddly riveting story of the black marketeers who trade in geoduck clams and of the law-enforcement officials who go to extraordinary lengths to thwart them.” --The Wall Street Journal
“Endlessly fascinating ... Welch is a superb reporter, and the book is never dull because the material is so rich.” -- The Seattle Times
"Reads like a spy novel."-- SmartMoney
Shell Games is a cops-and-robbers tale set in a double-crossing world where smugglers fight turf wars over some of the world's strangest marine creatures.
Puget Sound sits south of the border between the U.S. and Canada and is home to the magnificent geoduck (pronounced "gooey duck"), the world's largest burrowing clam. Comically proportioned but increasingly fashionable as seafood, the geoduck has been the subject of pranks, TV specials, and gourmet feasts. But this shellfish is so valuable it is also traded for millions of dollars on the black market— a world where outlaw scuba divers dodge cops while using souped-up boats, night-vision goggles, and weighted belts to pluck the succulent treasures from the sea floor. And the greatest dangers come from rival poachers who resort to arson and hit men to eliminate competition and stake their claim in the geoduck market.
Detective Ed Volz spent his life chasing elk-antler thieves, bobcat smugglers, and eagle talon poachers. Now he was determined to find the kingpin of the geoduck underworld. He and a team of federal agents set up illegal sales, secretly recorded conversations, and photographed hand-offs from the bushes. For years, they tracked a rogues' gallery of lawbreakers, who eventually led them to the biggest thief of all— a darkly charming con man who called himself the "GeoduckGotti" and who worked both sides of the law.
In Shell Games, veteran environmental journalist Craig Welch delves into the wilds of our nation's waters and forests in search of some of America's most unusual criminals and the cops who are on a mission to take them down. This thrilling examination of the international black market for wildlife is filled with butterfly thieves, bear slayers, and shark-trafficking pastors— all part of one of the largest illegal trades in the world.
