WATCH: TikTok video of woman digging for geoduck in WA goes viral
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QUILCENE, Wash. - A woman's deep dedication to digging out a geoduck in Quilcene, Washington is going viral on social media.
By the numbers
The video, posted by TikTok user @xchellesbellesx on Memorial Day, has racked up more than 100,000 likes on the platform and is giving the social media community a glimpse of the work it takes to dig up one of the Pacific Northwest's unique seafood delicacies.
With the tide coming in, and her body submerged in the geoduck gun, many on social media initially thought the woman was in danger. FOX 13 reached out to the people featured in the video to hear their side of the story.
Michelle Weaver, the woman who captured the moment on camera, said when hunting geoducks, it's important to stay still and keep an eye out for spurts of water shooting out of the sand. After spotting one, Amber Fauci dove in for the grab – and as soon as she got hold of it, it spurted sandy saltwater straight into her mouth.
(@xchellesbellesx via TikTok)
What they're saying
"So we dug out quite a bit of sand first, and you get to that point where you gotta reach deeper. And I'm short. I am five-foot-one, so I don't have really long arms, so I'm in there, and I saw that opportunity," said Amber. "Anybody who's gotten their feet stuck [in the sand] knows how far it suctions you down."
Amber grew up in Arizona, and this was her first time geoducking. She said she's raised three boys, so she's not afraid of getting her hands dirty.
"So I'm sitting there trying to pull myself up from the sand, and that's the struggle everybody thought was—'oh my gosh, she's stuck,'" she said. "I wasn't stuck, but I knew the tide was coming up, and that's when I decided to come up. It was when the tide hit my nose. I didn't feel like holding my breath, so that was when I started struggling to come up."
Tyler Weaver eventually plucked out the geoduck toward the end of the video, but said Amber had already done 90% of the work by then.
The backstory
Tyler, who is also a former geoduck diver, said they can dig about three to four feet deep and that you have to move quickly before they get away. He said he used what he called a "geoduck gun" that had been passed down through three generations of his family.
Similar devices are used by geoduck and clam fishermen, but Michelle describes this one as more of a 'glorified soup pot that has no bottom, that clearly can fit an entire human in it.'
"That helps from the water – from the tide coming in, or the sand falling in while you're trying to dig, because there's nothing like digging and then a whole pile of sand lands right where you just dug," Michelle said jokingly.
The group said after their successful dig, they celebrated with some clam and geoduck chowder. Now, they have a viral memory to look back on, one that's still making waves on TikTok as it continues to rack up views and likes.
The Source
Information in this story comes from an original FOX 13 interview.
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