The Prefect has decided to ban fishing and the marketing for human consumption of oysters, mussels and scallops from the Arcachon basin and the Banc d’Arguin.
Oysters, mussels, cockles and scallops from the entire Arcachon Basin (Gironde) are now prohibited for consumption, as are mussels from the Pertuis d’Antioche (Charente-Maritime) due to the presence of natural toxins, the prefectures concerned announced this Friday to Agence France Presse (AFP).
Alert thresholds exceeded
These are analyzes carried out this week by the monitoring network of Ifremer (French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea) which revealed, for the entire Arcachon basin and the Banc d’Arguin – a shellfish farming area at the entrance to the Basin – a level of toxin contamination above the alert threshold for oysters, mussels, cockles and scallops.
The Prefect therefore decided to ban the fishing and marketing for human consumption of all these shellfish from the Arcachon basin and the Banc d’Arguin. These measures will be reviewed as soon as the analyzes establish an improvement in the sanitary quality of these shellfish, specifies the prefecture.
A risk of gastric disorders
In recent years, oysters and shellfish in the Basin have regularly experienced periods of prohibition of consumption, sometimes of a few days, sometimes of several weeks, due to the presence of lipophilic toxins (liable to accumulate in the shellfish) linked to a microalgae ingested by shellfish. This natural phenomenon, partly seasonal, is associated in particular with rapid warming of the water. These toxins are capable of causing gastric disorders.
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