The Galician razor clam (Ensis arcuatus), the longueirón vello (Solen marginatus), and the longueirón (Ensis siliqua) are related species and of similar morphology. The main difference lies in the quality and taste. The longueirón vello is a species that is distributed along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coastline

The longueirón is also a gastronomic delight and its flavour, more intense, also has its followers. To differentiate between the two bivalves, there are two possible methods:

• Raw. You should note the shape of the shell. The razor has a yellowish, thin, flattened, rectangular and slightly curved shell. The longueiron shell is longer, white, robust and cylindrical
• Without shell, the razor-shell shows yellowish ends, while the longueiron is of a uniform and light colour.

Importance of the harvesting of the Galician razor

When fished by hand, the razor clams and longueirón, come out clean of sand, with the perfect texture and flavour. It is a selective fishing (the diver extracts each razor clam one by one) and environmentally friendly. The razor clams from O Grove are harvested with this method

In deep waters, the capture is done from boat by shellfish divers by various methods: free diving or scuba diving, depending on the depth (less than 20 meters). Currently, methods are being developed to cultivate and stable razor clams on the Galician coast.

Other fishing methods, such as trawling or vacuuming the seabed, are aggressive with the environment and the razor clams can come out broken or full of dirt. The dragging deteriorates or kills the razor clams, when precisely the difficulty to market them is their fragility.