The Pure Salmon company hoped to launch work on its salmon farming factory, in Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais), in October 2021. Alas! two years later, the project remained a dead letter. However, its promoters are trying to find a new place of asylum for it, in Verdon-sur-Mer, in Gironde. And two other investment companies are in the running to set up similar giant land-based aquaculture farms: Smart Salmon in Plouisy, near Guingamp (Côtes-d’Armor), and Local Ocean, in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Each time, these projects come up against grassroots opposition. “No to intensive fish farming in Boulonnais” : it is behind this slogan that local residents, associations and elected officials came together to denounce the Pure Salmon project, as soon as it was made official, in January 2020. The aquaculture initiative was presented during the Choose France event, chaired by Emmanuel Macron, where foreign groups wishing to establish themselves in France are welcomed with open arms. Or Pure Salmon, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, is controlled by the 8F Asset Management fund with, in turn, investors from the Emirates and Singapore.
Petitions, demonstrations, speeches… Opponents of this “factory farm”, intended to produce 10,000 tonnes of fish per year, spared no effort to block it. They criticized the excessive consumption of water and energy in this intensive breeding, denounced the risks of pollution and harm to animal welfare, and highlighted the artificialization of agricultural land. Pure Salmon, for its part, promised the creation of 150 jobs and an investment of 140 million euros. The company finally threw in the towel at the beginning of 2022.
Water access problems
“Pure Salmon thought that by moving to the North he would not have a water problem. However, we had a drought alert this summer. The company did drilling but found no water at the site. She wanted to use the public network, but between drinking water and eating salmon, you have to choose., explains Denis Buhagiar, elected (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts) to the Boulonnais urban community and actor in the protest, before adding: “Citizen mobilization is important, people must not think that it is useless. »
The regional environmental authority mission had, in addition, published in 2021 a very critical opinion on the projectjudging the “very insufficient file” and pointing out the fact that certain elements were still being considered, “particularly concerning the water supply to the factory”. On this crucial point, the mission specified that the needs of the aquaculture farm were estimated at 547,000 cubic meters per year – more than 1,500 cubic meters per day, the equivalent of the annual consumption of 10,000 inhabitants.
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