The passage in cash the game is without appeal

It is the antistar of seafood products. He preferred oyster, on festive tables, Diners the noses for the benefit of clams, clam or lobster. It does never pays the Chronicle of endangered species, to the sides of the bluefin tuna, cod, anchovy or sharks. The mussel taste the popularity that matched his oily binomial, the French FRY. But, it should be count on it at first foundations of the shellfish, which opens tomorrow in Paris. It could make a sustainable or transitional solution to the crisis that saw the oyster for three years already. A terrible mortality of swarms of oysters has decimated up to 80 of juveniles. This deprived profession has imposed on the Government of the Foundation to get afloat shellfish culture. Professionals dread reliving the hecatomb of the flat oyster, whose production is increased from 20,000 tonnes in 1980 to 1,500 tonnes today. The oyster hollow, which peaked at 150,000 tons before the crisis, have already strongly declined.

Culture of mussels, traverse without penalty health crises and remains at the level of 64.000 tonnes. As all shells, his crop suffered many days to ban each year, regions, climate. But the impact is. "It is an interesting solution of diversification for the profession," judge Jean-Pierre Baud, head of the program "Sustainable Aquaculture" at the French Institut de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer (Ifremer).

This aquaculture combines well with other assets, that its professionals are surprisingly slow to assert. "We tried to mobilize our colleagues on the theme of sustainable development with the printing of preaching in the desert," said Florent Tarbouriech, one of the few growers to shake the sustainable argument of this food (read below).

Downstream of the sector, a large consumer and dealer of mussels has seized the opportunity. The chain of restaurants Léon in Brussels, who buys 3,000 tonnes per year, squarely calculate the carbon footprint of this food to compare it to the meat. A satisfying portion of 800 grams represent ten times less greenhouse gases than 250 equivalent grams of beef or 40 times less than veal cutlet. The passage in cash, the game is without appeal. At 2.20 per kilo to purchase, or 10 euros per kilogram of meat cooked and drained, the vendors of mussels are rubbing their hands.

On the bathroom scale, the dietetic food overwrites all rivals: its flesh is very lean, concentrated the mineral salts and offers to the worshippers of well encrypted Omega fatty acids.

The development of this sector has no shortage of brakes so far. Areas of crops are not infinite on the French shore. Part of the industry could convert some of their parks, but profitability remains lower than that of the oysters: it is an activity of volume. Crops on strings will have to grow beyond the coast, offshore, but a few tested in the Mediterranean have failed.

Because the mold has a well equipped enemy, sea bream. Hammer-shaped teeth know crush the shell and retrieve the coveted flesh. It's not surprising that offshore parks have suffered very heavy predation, at the expense of productivity. "Underwater hunting enthusiasts have made bream miraculous fisheries in these areas," smiles Florent Tarbouriech who had to abandon the operation of such a concession off the coast of Sète. Professionals do not exclude to again try the adventure by testing techniques for the protection of the parks. Some also work on the implementation of areas around the future marine wind farms.