Pursuits
Herpes-Afflicted Oyster Industry in France Gets Glimmer of Hope
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Denis Bellocq, an oyster farmer in Arcachon Bay, the cradle of France’s 158-year-old oyster industry, points with pleasure to stacked red brick tiles covered in dozens of black specks in the basin’s tidal waters.
It has been a while since his oyster crop looked this rich. This year’s catch of wild juvenile oysters, table-ready in three years, is the biggest since 2008, says researcher Institut Francais de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer. That’s giving farmers like Bellocq hope after a herpes virus slashed France’s oyster harvest by 40 percent in the past four years.