After the red lobster or the large Mediterranean spider, scientists from a laboratory located in Corsica announced on Monday that they had mastered the reproduction of the giant limpet, an advance that could save this mollusc, of which the Island of Beauty is one of the last deposits.
The researchers of the Stella Mare platform (Sustainable TEchnologies for LittoraL Aquaculture and MARine REsearch) succeeded in obtaining 72 juveniles of this species protected at European level, then guaranteeing “the survival of more than 70%” of them to date.
present in antiquity
The individuals, which measure about ten centimeters and are more than three months old, are currently bred in the aquariums of Stella Mare, a laboratory located in Biguglia (Haute-Corse) and which depends on the University of Corsica and the National Center French for scientific research (CNRS).
They will be at the heart of a first experimental ecological restoration operation which will take place within a year, along the Old Port of Bastia, in Haute-Corse. This site, which historically presented populations of giant limpets (Patella ferruginea), “will serve both as a technological demonstrator and as an awareness site”.
Present in antiquity all around the Mediterranean, giant limpets – very limited populations – now only live in isolated sites on the coasts of Andalusia and northern Africa as well as in certain enclaves. of Corsica and Sardinia.