Ormer, Abalone, Ear-Shell

Family Haliotidae

• Portuguese: Orelha
• Spanish: Oreja de mar
• French: Ormeau, Six-yeux, Oreille de mer
• Dutch: Zee-oor

REMARKS Maximum length 12 cm. This is the Atlantic representative of the abalones, which flourish in finer and larger forms in the Pacific.

The range of the species extends as far north as the Channel Islands, where it is greatly prized. Ansted and Latham (in The Channel Islands, 1862) quoted someone who rhapsodized thus about the ormer (which he called Ormond): ‘ ’Tis much bigger than an oyster, and like that, good either fresh or pickled, but infinitely more pleasant to the gusto, so that an epicure would think his palate in paradise if he might but always gormandize on such delicious ambrosia.’ Such paradise is nowadays denied to Jersey and Guernsey epicures, for the ormer is in short supply there; but it may still be had quite readily on the French coast and further south.