4.5 Lagoon exploitation

4.5.1 Aquaculture and capture fisheries

There is a very old tradition of fishing and collecting shellfish in the French Mediterranean lagoons. Only some partial historical series of catches in some of the French lagoons can be found in the official statistical reports or in the published or “grey” literature. From these data, it appears that these activities have been decreasing from the early eighties, due to the unequilibrium between the retiring of aged persons versus the arrival of young people and an increasing sharing of the effort between lagoon and sea, probably linked to a stock size diminution of some target species. The fishing activity in the French lagoons is based on eels, seabass, seabreams, grey mullets and atherinas.

Fishing gear

Different types of gear, essentially set nets, traps and lines, are used seasonally with varying frequencies in different areas. There are no more fixed fishing gear at lagoon openings to the sea and the main type of gear currently used to catch fish is the classical fyke net (capechade). Other gear categories, gillnets, trammel nets, trolling lines and a few longlines are also used, but they are less important.

Work force, establishments and institutions

The professional people exploiting the lagoons are officially registered at the maritime Administration. In 2010 there were 526 aquaculturists and around 600 fishers. They are members of different socio-professional organizations, the "Prud'homies" that manage the organization of fishing by enforcing the general rules but also by developing their own internal rules. They own a Court, elected for three years, which can impose fines on violators. Every year they also distribute the fishing posts for the fyke nets by drawing lots between their members. 

Aquaculture and capture fishery management

The management regulations include several types of measures: a part of them concern the regulation of the access to the resource by limiting the number of fishers and aquaculturists by means of licences and by the conditions of obtaining of the professional status. The number of aquaculture plants is regulated. The allocation of the fishing places to install the fyke nets is made at random and there are calendars of opening/closing of fishing zones. The number of nets is also regulated, as well as the mesh sizes. Other measures concern the technical characteristics as the dimensions and the spacing between nets and size of the net dams, which do not have to exceed two thirds maximum of the width of the passages between sea and lagoons to favour the escape of the spawning migration to sea.

Fish production

There is a general lack of statistical series on fish production. More than 30 species of fishes are captured in the French lagoons, from which the main commercial ones are the eels, grey mullets, seabasses, seabreams, soles and atherinas. For these species some indication on the production by unit of surface can be found in the literature: according to the lagoon this production varies between 20 kg/ha and 90 kg/ha, the eel being the main bulk of the catch (up to 75 percent but very variable from one year to another.).
More than 20 species of fishes and crustaceans are commonly caught in the fyke nets, among these the European eel, Anguilla anguilla, is the most important target species, representing 70 to 80 percent of the total catches and the most important commercial revenue of the overall lagoon fishery. Glass eels fishing is prohibited on the French Mediterranean coast and the adults (yellow or silver eels) are fished all along the year, and in autumn large quantities of adults eels migrate to the sea; during this season in some lagoons several hundreds of fyke nets are installed along long net barriers to close the passage at sea (national regulation prohibits the installation of barriers of more than two thirds of the opening wide in all the French Mediterranean lagoons, however this rule is not completely implemented).
Eel production in the French lagoons has always been irregular, however in the last 20 years this production has shown a regular decreasing trend. On some lagoons like the Etang de Thau, clams are the most commercially important target species of the fishery; traditionally they are caught using rakes but they are also intensively exploited by scuba divers. Poaching is very common for the catching of clams and glass eels.
Regarding aquaculture production, according to the official data the French lagoons have produced 8 825 tonnes of oysters and 4 180 tonnes of mussels in 2010.

4.5.2 Recreational activities

The touristic pressure on the French lagoons is very variable from one lagoon to another. Nevertheless, in general the cities surrounding the lagoons receive in summer a quite important number of tourists attracted by the long sandy beaches on the seaside and their population can be ten times more important in summer than in winter. In several cases there is also an important industrial activity around some lagoons.