(Broderip 1833) - Common name Pacific Spiny Oyster - Size range (no size range recorded) - Range: Sea of Cortez to Peru
 
I've been selling these for 6 years and this specimen is one of the nicest and I have ever seen. Collected live by panga boat hooka divers on rocks. The warm waters of the Sea of Cortez cause extremely thick and dense build up and encrustations, not to mention parasites that eat away the spines very quickly. Larger specimens are almost always smooth.
 
The fishermen removed the oyster for the meat.  Then presented me with the uncleaned shell.  I clean all my spondylus the same way, so any color variations are all natural.  I did no damage to the specimen during cleaning.  So what you see is after about 2 hours of scrubbing and cleaning.  I did put a light coating of mineral oil on the shell to bring out the beautiful colors.  A light wash with dish soap can remove this if you do not desire it.
 
Again these are collected within about 20 km of Puerto Penasco, Mexico.  The absolute best of the best, I separate from hundreds of these.