The shellfish producers of the Etang de Thau learned on Friday 30 December of the ban on the marketing of their products due to a norovirus. In 2022 it is the third time that the prefecture has issued a health decree. But you have to go back to 2020 to find the last total closure of the pond.
The ban was lifted on Friday December 30, on the eve of one of the biggest selling days for shellfish producers in the Thau Basin. Due to a norovirus detected in the pond, the marketing of oysters, mussels and clams harvested or caught after December 15 is prohibited by prefectural ordinance.
2022, a difficult year for the molluscs of the Etang de Thau
Bad news for shellfish farmers, not spared in 2022. Because last October the Hérault prefecture had already taken measures to protect consumers. It was then only mussels and clams, after the discovery of toxins that can cause serious digestive disorders.
Same observation now almost a year ago, in January 2022. Once again, it was a toxin released by microscopic plants that had been the reason for the ban on fishing and the marketing of shellfish. Once again, the oysters had been spared these sanitary measures.
Sea bream is also involved
Spared from toxins, but not from sea bream! Because much more recently, shellfish farmers have had to contend with increased predation on these fish, which have been staying longer in the pond due – in part – to global warming. At the beginning of November, the president of the Regional Committee for Mediterranean Shellfish, Patrice Lafon, made the bitter observation of the impact of sea bream on cultivation tables.
The latest total ban in 2020
We have to go back to January 2020 to find traces of a total ban on the sale of molluscs from the Thau pond. The Hérault prefecture then “closed the pond” for ten days after reporting about twenty cases of intoxication. Again, it was gastroenteritis norovirus.
