“Beyond its shape, it has such a particular flavor: there is less content, but a nutty taste, more iodized than hollow, more metallic, too.
Me, I was brought up to that here, and it's hard to live without it!
".
For Jean-Luc Le Gall, a well-known oyster producer from Plougastel-Daoulas, in the bay of Brest (Finistère), one of the historic bastions of the flat oyster, which is rare on the stalls today, it is imperative to save.
Very popular, these molluscs had suddenly disappeared from the stalls in the 1970s, struck down by overfishing but also by two diseases of their own.
“Today, we sell 350 tonnes of cupped oysters against barely 100 tonnes of flat oysters… And still,” sighs the oyster farmer.
However, the flat oyster, Ostrea edulis, a species endemic to the region, which weighs from 45 g to 130 g and measures between 10 and 15 cm long, has not been forgotten by the Bretons, nor by the world of research. , which is actively working on its restoration.
In the bay of Mont Saint-Michel and in the bay of Brest
"We had replaced it, after its virtual disappearance, by introducing the cupped oyster which we know better, but which is a species from Japan", explains Ricardo Gonzalez-Arya, in Lampaul-Plouarzel, director of the center of applied research at Breizh Mer. He works with producers in the harbor of Brest and the bay of Quiberon and the Regional Shellfish Farming Committee Bretagne-Nord (CRCBN) on the Arche project for the reintroduction of
Ostrea edulis
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The larvae are currently developing in Lower Brittany and then continue their development in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel, where the diseases are less active.
Then they are dispersed again in the harbor of Brest, in order to grow naturally.
“Our objective is to improve reproduction through genetic selection, with the aim of repopulating historical and current deposits,” explains Ricardo Gonzalez-Arya.
By spring 2023, the Arche program should provide some positive responses to this expected renewal.