A RARE white-shelled ormer will soon be back in its natural habitat.

It was discovered by Jamie Le Tissier when he was ormering at Cobo.

‘When I first looked under this big boulder I couldn’t tell what it was. It was pure white so I didn’t think it could be an ormer,’ said Mr Le Tissier.

He carefully prised it from the rock, ensuring the shell remained undamaged, and wrapped it in seaweed before calling a sea fisheries officer.

‘No one I spoke to had ever heard of or seen a white shell on an ormer.’

Mr Le Tissier said the find even had retired ormer farmer Richard Tostevin stumped. The shell is just over 80mm, the minimum size for gathering in Guernsey.

Daniel Geiger, research curator of electron microscopy at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History department of invertebrates in California, was contacted and said it should be saved and donated to a museum.