BIODIVORMEAU Environmentally friendly oyster farming

The BIODIVORMEAU project will develop sustainable and responsible oyster farming for cleaner production coupled with protection of the shellfish environment.

With BIODIVORMEAU, France Haliotis, the world’s leading producer of organic oysters, aims to exploit ecosystemic services as part of a further decisive step towards full environmental integration of its production processes.

Farming oysters at sea is not particularly energy intensive but requires the use of algae as feed. The algae are at present harvested from reefs around the farming site. The project will develop pioneering tools to improve algal resource management and valorisation, which in turn will accelerate development of a sustainable oyster aquaculture in Europe.

By improving our understanding of the algal resource, its distribution, diversity and seasonality, it will be easier to reduce the impact of its harvesting and to improve valorisation of the algae throughout the year. To achieve this, oyster-farm installations will be adapted to reduce their environmental footprint: rainwater will be used for cleaning processes and a drying machine powered by photovoltaic energy will dry the algae during the growing season and will meet day-time energy needs.

An annual sampling programme will be set up in collaboration with marine habitat experts and, from this, a database will be compiled which will be sensitive enough to detect environmental variations.

Lastly, BIODIVORMEAU will help orientate the company’s commercial policy by short-circuiting the sales process and opening up the farm to visitors, enabling them to find out about the oyster, its farming and habitat, and about the algae it feeds on.

This project clearly reflects the company’s desire to strengthen its production methods, so that, by maximising energy self-sufficiency, they are even more environmentally and resource-friendly and the farm can assume the role of safeguarding coastal biodiversity.