Le Figaro Nantes
The oyster farmers of Loire-Atlantique can take a breather - and finally dive back into the swing of things. On Monday 15 January, the prefect of the department, Fabrice Rigoulet-Roze, repealed the decrees that had prohibited the fishing, collection and - above all - the marketing of oysters and other shellfish since 15 December. This decision comes after noting that "no contaminating event has been identified or declared" in the so-called La Prée and Grands Rochers sectors north of the Bay of Bourgneuf, along the Jade Coast, specifies the prefecture, which therefore considers that this production area has recovered "a satisfactory sanitary quality".
Oyster farmers strike back
Despite this return to normalcy, producers in the region do not intend to abandon the legal actions that have been prepared since the start of the school year. Faced with the loss of income linked to the bans on the sale of oysters at Christmas, several oyster farmers have seen a radical drop in their turnover, by more than 60% on the 2022 figures, for some. The Pays de la Loire Regional Committee for Shellfish Farming is preparing three complaints against X in order to shed light on the origin of the contamination of the bay with norovirus, the gastroenteritis virus at the origin of the prefectural decrees.
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Professionals in the oyster farming sector have been indignant since December that they are not only the victims of this episode of water pollution, but also that they are the only ones to bear the financial cost. All the producers interviewed since December by Le Figaro pointed the finger at the wastewater treatment networks, which are in poor condition and quick to overflow in the event of bad weather.
Long remained silent, the local authority admitted last week to our colleagues from Ouest France that some of the ducts "look like pasteboard", according to the expression of Claude Caudal, in charge of the sanitation of the agglomeration of Pornic-Pays de Retz. The renewal of the network, he says, cannot go faster than the financing, while the renovation of a kilometre of pipe costs nearly a million euros.