Nearly three years ago, Gig Harbor fisherman Doug McRae signed a $2,500 lease on tideland owned by Pierce County, Washington, and then sold $2.5 million in geoduck clams taken there.

A county lawyer, who admits the lease was a mistake, persuaded a judge to invalidate the lease in July. Now she is trying to recover the value of the highly prized bivalves - a Japanese culinary delicacy - plus still-unspecified damages to marine habitat.

"Pierce County did not know the value of what was on the property," said Bertha Fitzer, the deputy county prosecutor who sued McRae on behalf of the county.

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