Curious Artefacts of the British Isles - No. 314, The Living Fish Glove

Salmon Mask Replica Glove for collecting oysters at low tide. Still in use throughout the Minch seaboard from Barras Head to the Butt of Lewis in the Hebrides. Also used to detect increases in solar activity via changes in scale pigmentation before particularly vivid manifestations of the Aurora Borealis. After pearl removal the highly toxic irradiated entrails of the oysters are given to the living salmon glove to eat. At the end of the season they are sold to Morrisons. Many believe that without the benefit of this age-old symbiotic relationship, this consensual co-operation between man and beast founded on mutual respect, the salmon would not survive. (Photo : Summerisle 1967)