A good year for ormering
TURNING rocks to spot and measure molluscs has taken the fancy of many islanders.
Good weather made it an enjoyable day to don wellies or waders for the ormering tides.
Informally, ormerers have noticed more of the shellfish this time than in previous years.
‘I’ve got four so far and he’s got two,’ said Danny Archer, with his son Jesse.
‘We’ve been here for about 20 minutes. Usually we get quite lucky, we do well. Sometimes when we go looking we get a lobster. It’s not often you get days like this.’
Mr Archer has taken his sons ormering for years and they have learned the tricks.
‘My other son came down here and had about 130-odd between the two of them.’
Ormers have been particularly plentiful this year, he said.
‘I’ve been coming here for 30-odd years and I’d say this year is one of the best ever. On the last ormering tide we found 98 one day and 88 the next.’
Neil Hutchinson had found three ormers in 30 minutes.
‘I went out on the first tide of the year, but I’ve had Covid so haven’t been able to do much with the tiredness and lack of vitamin D,’ Mr Hutchinson said.
‘I think today and tomorrow are the best tides of the year and we have great weather too. I’ll start heading back up the beach at around 2.30 or 3pm.’
Several on the shoreline had fashioned a type of telescope with a crab pot funnel and transparent material to spot submerged ormers, with inflatables tied to ormer hooks to make sure they do not get lost.
Today is the last day of the ormering tides this month, with a low 0.4m tide at around 2pm.
