Lscallop fishermen are about to return to their shell. In Normandy as in Brittany, the season is coming to an end, and the last catches are taken along the water until the end of April, or even mid-May. The precious deposits in the Bay of Seine, like in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc, are already officially closed. It is therefore time to take stock.
Long live for the bivalve! one would be tempted to exclaim, after fishing for information. “The scallop campaign, which is coming to an end in Normandy, will remain a very good season, both in terms of volumes landed and in terms of marketing”rejoices Dominique Lamort, de Normandy Sea Freshness. Same satisfaction on the Breton side with a few caveats.
Fifteen minutes a day
From October 2021, the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) set the tone for the season before the flotilla rush. “Scallops in the bay of the Seine and in the bay of Saint-Brieuc: absolute record”, he shouted. As every year, the researchers had probed the underwater deposits. And the result of their investigations was promising. They estimated at 80,000 tonnes the exploitable biomass between Barfleur (Manche) and Cap d’Antifer (Seine-Maritime). The same abundance of population on the coast of Brittany where the exploitable volume was estimated at 44,000 tonnes.
Miraculous fishing on the horizon, then. Even if the activity is timed. “On certain deposits, the 230 boats that have the license fish on Mondays and Wednesdays, fifteen minutes a day”, explains Alain Coudray, president of the Côtes-d’Armor departmental fisheries committee. The crews sort the shells dredged from the sandy bottom directly on the ship and throw back into the sea those that do not have the regulatory size. That is 10.2 cm minimum on the Brittany coast, 11 cm in the Eastern Channel. To this collective management of the resource is added an environmental factor. “The slight warming of the water promotes the reproduction of scallops in June-July”, says Mr. Lamort.
Result, “This season, Norman fishermen had to catch between 25,000 and 30,000 tonnes of scallops”, believes Mr. Lamort. And despite these generous volumes, prices held up. In any case, on the side of the Granville auction. “There was a little slack at Christmas, but the average price over the whole campaign was 2.95 against 2.80 euros per kilo a year earlier”, says Mr. Lamort.
Prices seem to have slipped a little more in Brittany. “From January, prices rose to 2.70 then 2.50 euros and approached 2 euros per kilo”, according to M. Coudray. Another reason for satisfaction: in this period of soaring energy prices, this coastal fishing requires less diesel. A faultless shell…