“Halibut ears,” he said. “What?” I replied “Did I hear you correctly? Did you say halibut ears? as in halibut the fish and ears you hear with?” “Sure,” he replied, “check it out on google.” And I’ll be darned…turns out that halibuts do have ears.
He’s a respected artist/jewelry maker in the Denver area and he was very excited to get some halibut ears, some from fish as large as 200 lbs. The ears (or otoliths) are bones located behind the eyes of the fish. Once the bones are cleaned, the rings can be counted to determine the age of the fish …and some fish are 40+ years old. Halibut use these bones to transmit the sound waves they receive sort of like sonar receptors…and other fish have ears, too, but halibut make beautiful jewelry.
Ohmigosh, is it not a truly amazing world when fish have ears…and they can be bezel set in silver?
September 8, 2008 at 8:18 pm |
OH MY GOSH I want one………….. :0) What is this artist’s name so I can order??
September 9, 2008 at 7:08 pm |
Contact Ron Smith via email at RG2LS@aol.com He makes gorgeous jewelry in silver with precious and semi-precious stones and yes, with halibut ears!
November 6, 2008 at 3:12 pm |
Andi, I sent Ron an email today. Thought I’d let you know in case you see him and he mentions it! :0)