Shellfish industry is passing through its worst crisis in 40 years after stocks of young oysters have been decimated by a mystery ailment. In a recent weeks French oyster farmers have seen between 40 and 100 per cent of their oysters aged one to two years wiped out. The death was far higher than the normal mortality rate in the summer months.
The mystery disease is affecting all the oyster-producing regions of France, although the worst hit is the Thau saltwater lake, near the southwest city of Montpellier. Olivier Gonzalez, an oyster farmer at Bouzigues, bordering Thau, said that he has to throw away 200,000 spat (oyster larvae) which he bought due to this disease. Martial Monnier, director general of the national shellfish industry board, states that the industry is facing a major problem, with 40 to 100 per cent of young oysters dying, depending on the beds.
Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Michel Barner urged research scientists at France’s marine research institute to find out a way to oysters. It is said that the mystery disease is due to rising water temperatures because of climate change since 1995, which made oysters more vulnerable, but experts do not believe that sea temperatures are dangerously high. It is said that the oysters have been affected by a mystery pathogen as in the crisis in the 1970s. According to Barner the virus could take one or two years to identify.
