Aquaculture, a new battle horse in the food industry? Several salmon farm projects are emerging in France. The latest, that of the company Local Océan, came out of the boxes at the start of the year. He plans to produce between 8,000 and 9,000 tons of pink fish per year, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, in Pas-de-Calais. For ecologists, the installation of this “intensive farming” endangers the marine ecosystem of the fishing port. The public inquiry, which has just ended in mid-July, points to a lack of information. Explanations.
Salmon is obviously popular in the Boulonnais. A few years ago, a first aquaculture farm project, carried out by the company Pure Salmon, ended up sinking. This time, it is a 50-year-old entrepreneur, Alain Treuer, who is involved in the industrial production of salmon. According to The worldman has built his success on biofuels and vegetable proteins.
The French, a big consumer of salmon
With his box, Local Ocean, he intends to set up a gigantic farm on the site of the commercial port. At stake, 70 jobs for an investment of 200 million euros. The entrepreneur surfs on the idea that the Frenchman is a big consumer of salmon: the second in the world after Japan. However, almost all of this salmon is imported from Norway or Scotland because the animal has the particularity of appreciating rather cold waters (no more than 14°).
The market is therefore open. And Boulogne-sur-Mer has a major asset with the Capécure industrial zone, which houses the first European fish processing platform. So will we, one day, eat Boulogne salmon? The public inquiry, which ended in mid-July, has some reservations.
The promoter of the project, Local Océan, is thus forced to “carry out a complete diagnosis in the summer period of the waters and the seabed where the company plans to discharge its pollutants into the harbor of Boulogne”, underlines, in a press release, the political group EELV which supports the collective opposed to the project. The activists say they are ready to mobilize “all means of appeal to the administrative court”.
Marine Pollution Risks
The main sticking point concerns the risks of marine pollution. “As a reminder, hundreds of tonnes of nitrogen and phosphorus responsible for the proliferation of green algae, as in Brittany, could be emitted each year. Would also be rejected “suspended matter” which will help the development of bacteria and thus degrade the quality of the bathing waters of the beaches of Boulonnais”, denounces the collective against the intensive breeding of salmon in the Boulonnais.
For his part, Alain Treuer explains to France Télévisions wanting to “make local salmon, in a short circuit, eco-responsible and sustainable”. And this, thanks to a process of recirculation of sea water, in particular to supply a cooling circuit. Because breeding must be done in huge vats filled with water pumped into the sea.
The water for the salmon will be “filtered, purged of bacteria, enriched with oxygen, disinfected by UV, then injected into the basins”, specifies Alain Treuer. “So there is no pollution,” he says. We cannot afford to pollute water that we are going to reuse! »
In Gironde too
In this debate, it will be the prefect of Pas-de-Calais who will have to decide. In Gironde, a similar salmon factory project is also in the works. Pure Salmon – the return – signed, in April 2022, an occupancy agreement (for 49 years) with the major maritime port of Bordeaux for a turnkey industrial site, located in Verdon-sur-Mer.
An application for a building permit and environmental authorization has been submitted with the aim of starting to produce 10,000 tonnes per year, or 5% of French consumption. And this, from 2026. However, here too, environmentalists are upwind against the project.
In Brittany, near Guingamp, the Norwegian company Smart Salmon, which also plans to embark on intensive salmon production in France (we are also on 8,000 tonnes of production per year), suffered a setback at the start of the year. year, with the negative vote of the agglomeration community council. But if the project has lead in the scale, it is far from having fallen through.
In France, aquaculture therefore remains, for the time being, a modest activity. The largest fish farm is located in Gravelines, in the North, and produces (only!) 1,500 tonnes of sea bream and sea bass annually. Quite far from what the salmon giants offer.