Rest of sardines in a box in the stalls. Last year, the famous Quiberon (Morbihan), who only works for fresh fish, could not offer enough to satisfy the appetite of his clients.
The fault of a particularly calamic fishing in 2024 on the coast of Breton. But the most surprising phenomenon remains the reduction of size and, therefore, the weight, the sardine, which has been reduced by 50% in 15 years, at the same age, according to Ifremer.
“The difficulty of a small fish is that it has an immediate impact on our productivity,” describes Caroline Hilliet Le Branchu, CEO of Belle-Iloise.
A smaller sardine, “When you work by hand, both for the explosion and for the box, it is twice the labor,” says Jean-François Feillet, quality director of Chancerelle Cannery, during a colloquium in Brest.
Zooplankton, suspect No. 1
It was already observed in the Mediterranean sardine, whose fishery collapsed in the 2000-2010 decade, this size of decrease is due to global warming, which affects the zooplankton with which the fish feeds.
Within the zooplankton, scientists have observed an increase in the proportion of small copépods (small crustaceans), while the large one has decreased.
Therefore, the sardine must deploy more efforts to feed on small dams, of less good quality, in a warmer ocean and less oxygenated, which affirms the highest energy needs.
This trend, linked to global warming, “Left to last,” adds Mathieu Doray, also Ifremer researcher: “What we anticipate, in the best case, is a stabilization of size and weight.”
Less fruitful fishing
To this big problem, the one of an resource is added to half mast. A long time ago, the Gulfne Gulf sardine saw its biomass divided by almost three in 20 years. Now it evolves very close to the “limit” level, under which a fish stock is considered to be “collapsed”, according to scientific estimates.
To compensate for the lack of fish, cans obtain their supplies in Portugal or Spain. And others to Morocco, in frozen fish. Faced with this supply challenge for the sector, some even defend the prohibition of sardine fishing in winter, to allow stocks to be renewed.
But the Bolincheurs, who fish sardine with a rotating network, depend a lot on this small fish, especially since they saw their chipper and chip quotas drastically. “Young people move away from this work because it is not viable,” Deplora Yvan Le Ly, 55, president of the Bolinchors association. Previously very popular, this profession is only practiced by 21 boats, which sell their fish from 70 to 80 cents per kilo to the canned.
The sardine in a box remains very coveted by the French, who appreciate this blue fish, recognized for its health benefits: they buy more than 16,000 tons every year, at 11 euros per kilo on average.
“When there is nothing else to eat, we always have Sardina as security,” describes Sigrid Lehuta, Ifremer researcher. Until recently, “it was a shelter product for consumers and a kind of refuge for fishermen.”
Source: BFM TV
