Some will fill their baskets with clams, cockles or mussels. Others of periwinkles, curry combs or oilcake for the lucky ones. While the high tides are back, with coefficients exceeding 110, the foreshore of the Breton coast will still be stormed by fishermen on foot until Thursday. The most seasoned will go hunting for abalone, a marine mollusc from the gastropod family which is a bit like the star of shellfish.
Because sea caviar, as it is nicknamed, is not easily captured. Living in rocky areas, always near algae that it likes to graze on, abalone is only caught when the coefficients are greater than 100. “You have to go to the lowest part of the foreshore to be able to access rocks which are only discovered during high tides”, indicates Franck Delisle, director of the VivArmor Nature associationwhich raises awareness among fishermen on good practices in each episode.
A treasure of the seas that is worth it
Arriving in the abalone zone, accustomed to cold coastal areas, the fisherman must also get wet before plunging his hands into the faults or turning over the stones. “It is often well hidden so you have to have an eye and a little luck too,” assures Emmanuel Even. Born on Ile-Grande but now living in Paris, this fisherman is one of the handful of insiders who hunt for abalone on the Pink Granite coast at each high tide. “It’s like mushrooms, everyone has their own habits and the places they know,” he smiles.
Equipped with a suit, a hook and a net, he also always carries a dagger with him to remove the abalone from its rocky support. “It’s fishing that has to be earned,” warns Franck Delisle. Because after his efforts, there is a treasure at stake. In an interview with Challenges, Loïk Le Floch-Prigent, former CEO of Elf and passionate about shore fishing, also assured that abalone fishing was his favorite. “Because it’s the tastiest seafood in the world, the one for which I am capable of traveling the most miles,” he said in 2014.
Strictly regulated fishing
With its finely iodized and nutty taste, abalone is indeed prized by gourmets. A luxury product which can sell for between 80 and 100 euros per kilo and which can be found at the tables of prestigious restaurants. At this price, the sea snail arouses desire and at each tide, unscrupulous fishermen are caught by the patrol. “Abalone fishing is strictly regulated to preserve the species because poaching and a disease almost decimated the populations in the 1960s and 1970s,” emphasizes Franck Delisle.
Any abalone fisherman therefore only has the right today to collect twenty abalones per day from September 1st to June 1st with a minimum size of nine centimeters to be respected. “And underwater fishing is prohibited,” continues the director of VivAmor Nature. Only a few professional fishermen with a specific license are authorized to fish for abalone while diving, like Kénan Riou, based in Saint-Quay-Portrieux. “We are entitled to a quota of 4.2 tonnes per year with fishing which is authorized from mid-September to the end of May,” he explains. And for each catch, we must band the abalone to ensure that the abalone was actually caught by a professional. »
As we can see, abalone is therefore not within the reach of all hands or all budgets. And once you’re ready to eat it, you still have to prepare it. “You have to beat it for around twenty minutes in a cloth with a hammer or a spoon to soften its flesh because otherwise it is inedible,” warns Emmanuel Even. And then I cook them in a pan with butter, garlic and parsley and it’s a treat. The taste is truly unique and inimitable! »