Worrying: oyster larvae have survived very badly in the summer of 2019

Despite conditions that seemed good, the survival of oyster larvae was very slim this summer. The catchment promises to be moderate or even weak. When working with nature, the years follow each other and are never alike. The collection of oyster larvae in the Arcachon basin was excellent last summer, it is likely to be low this year! This is in any case what emerges from the summary sheet published these days by the Regional Center for Experimentation.

The Bassin d’Arcachon first site breeder France

Thanks to ideal conditions of temperature, salinity and solar radiations, the Bassin d’Arcachon is a historic site of natural catchment.
As early as the end of the 19th century, a technique was developed to allow oyster farmers to catch larvae from oyster breeding.
This technique, which consists in using as collector a tile covered with a mixture of lime and sand, is still used today.

Capture

Catchment is a very important activity for the basin since the oyster farmers use it not only for their own production, but also to sell spat to other French oyster ponds. Indeed the basin provides 60 to 70% of the 4 billion and a half young oysters needed for all French production.