It is called whelk or whelk, but some also call it “torion”, “calicoco” or “bavoux”. This ten centimeter marine mollusk, similar to a snail, is a typical popular dish of French gastronomy, which is eaten as an appetizer, sometimes as an aperitif, with mayonnaise or buttered bread. But, for several months already, this little gastropod with a pointed shell is no longer really cheap. Its price has literally soared: on average 20 euros per kilo of cooked whelks on the stalls of fishmongers, around 16 euros per kilo of live whelks, ie double last year. A tariff hot shot that cooled the clientele. “I buy some every Sunday, it’s like a tradition with my husband, says Brigitte, on the Talensac market in Nantes. But now I take a lot less. It’s too expensive. “It’s become excessive, it’s not worth it,” considers Régis, another client.
“Seven to eight years ago, I sold it for around 4 euros per kilo, remembers Alric Paon, head of a network of about fifteen fishmongers and points of sale in Loire-Atlantique. That makes a hell of a difference. Regular customers inevitably ask us questions. So we are reducing our margins. And we explain the context, so as not to hear that it’s the fishmonger who stuffs himself. »
The context is that of the rarefaction of the whelk. A phenomenon observed for a few years, which intensified with the heat peaks of the year 2022. Because climate change is the main reason put forward. “The rise in water temperature [+1 à +1,5° C] impacts whelk reproduction. It has the effect of significantly reducing the emission of eggs by females and the hatching of juveniles,” reports the French research institute for the exploitation of the sea (Ifremer), who worked on the subject. The warming of the water leads, moreover, to a lengthening of the duration of the burial of the mollusc, which especially appreciates cool waters.
“You have to travel 4 to 5 kilometers to find it”
Whelks less fertile and more difficult to capture: a double handicap for fishermen, especially those from Cotentin (Normandy), whose shellfish is the great specialty. ” AT Granville, the main port of activity, there were usually 30 tonnes at the auction less than ten years ago. Now, if they have 7-8 tons, that’s good enough. The same observation is made in Seine-Maritime and in the Baie de Somme”, deplores Alexandre Leclerc, professional fisherman and member of the council of the Normandy Regional Fisheries Committee. He explains that he has to fetch the whelk from further and further away. “You have to travel 4 to 5 kilometers to find them in deeper areas, where the water is colder. Before, we fished 500 m from the shore. »
However, global warming is not the only cause of the whelk’s depletion. Overfishing is another advanced cause. “The resource was poorly managed in relation to the number of boats, we are not going to lie to each other, analyzes Alexandre Leclerc. At one point, a lot of fishermen got on the whelk because there were crises on other products, such as sole for example. May be too much. Now we know the opposite effect. The activity was halved. The price makes it possible to compensate, but what will happen in the future? In an attempt to stem the trend, fishing quotas have been reduced, fishing has been closed on weekends in most ports, and even the whole month of January in Granville. The size of the sorting grids has also been increased to “not take too small”, in conjunction with the scientific community.
“Today even the ugly whelks are sought after”
“At this rate, I think that one day the whelk will become a luxury product, bets Alexandre Leclerc. Today, even the ugly whelk, which previously was not kept by fishmongers, is sought after. The boss of the Paon fishmongers is less convinced by this move upmarket. ” I do not believe it. Prices have also been deregulated by low stocks after Covid-19, I think they will come down a bit. And then the whelk does not have the image of a luxury product. It’s still an additional shellfish that we put in a seafood platter. When I do an estimate for a platter, it’s very often the whelks that we’re asked to remove if necessary. It happened the same with brown crab, which has become rare and is hardly sold anymore, it’s too expensive for the product. »
Carried out using specific bait and traps placed at the bottom of the water, whelk fishing is mainly practiced in the Normandy, Brittany and Hauts-de-France regions. Faced with the difficulties of the resource and competition from British and Irish fishermen, some bulotiers plead for a postponement of fishing towards scallops, spider crabs, or even hermit crabs.