And in turn they have helped to put a prized local delicacy back on the menu – if only for a few days.
In California they are called abalone, in New Zealand paua, in South Africa perlemoen and in Japan awabi.
Ormers, as they are known in Jersey, are much sought after locally and considered one of the finest culinary treats our seas have to offer.
They have tough flesh and a greenish-black mantle but prised out of their shells, scrubbed, trimmed, beaten with a steak mallet, fried with flour and onions and then casseroled for three or four hours in a slow oven, they can be delicious.
More like meat than fish they tend to be accompanied by a gravy and crusty fresh bread and white wine.
Because the low spring tides have allowed a bumper – and lucrative – crop of ormers to be collected, and hopes are high that it could signal a good year for stocks of the edible shellfish.
However Islanders wanting to cook up an ormer stew or casserole will now have to wait until next month when another spring tide is due.
Louis Jackson, from the Fresh Fish Company, said that they had sold thousands of pounds worth of ormers in four days. Of the 360, which were sold for £6 a piece, most went before they had even gone on the counter at the company’s shop at La Collette.
‘All of them were locally caught off Jersey by people low water fishing,’ he said.
Mr Jackson now hopes that this week’s haul is a good sign generally for local ormers, which for conservation reasons can only be collected on foot during specific tides in winter and early spring. Only those above nine centimetres can be kept.
‘We had a lovely summer, the sea temperature was really good, really warm, and we had a good tide this week so conditions were good,’ he said.
‘It has been particularly good over the last few days and what we have bought have been a really good size and I’d like to think it is encouraging. It was a decent catch for the size of spring tide, we have another one coming up in March so we’ll see how that one goes. If it is the same then that will be a good sign.’
A JEP reader had an exciting find in 2008, while searching for ormers on a fishing expedition when they found a pearl hidden inside one of the ormers.
Alas, it proved not to be a pearl of great price.
Although its outer surface consisted of the lovely mother-of-pearl that coats the interior of an ormer’s shell, this particular pearl was small and irregular.
ORMERS
Ormers are a rare marine snail and fishing for them is strictly controlled.
The word comes from the French ‘oreille de mer’ (ear of the sea) and gathering the delicacy is notoriously difficult. No diving equipment is allowed to be used so ormers can only be gathered at low tide. The tough ormer has to be tenderised with a meat mallet, fried in onions and then casseroled for hours to turn it into a fine culinary treat.
RAZORFISH
Razorfish are caught by fishermen who have a keen eye and lightning-fast reflexes. The tide must be out but all the fisherman needs is a large packet of salt and a bucket. He drops a pinch of salt over a key-shaped hole in the sand and when the razorfish, believing the tide to be coming in, pops out of the hole, grabs it quickly. Razorfish can be tough washed several times before cooking.
SPIDER CRAB
Spider crab is known for being sweeter
than chancre crab and can grow up to 10 inches and weigh more than 5 kilograms.
Fishermen are banned from collecting them every year for six weeks from 15 October to give them a chance to grow after they have cast off their shells. Spider crab should be cooked very simply and boiled in salty water.
CONGERS
Congers used to be very popular in Jersey and fisherman would display the huge fish curled up with their tails tucked in their mouths.
