Ecocean Biohut protect fish during their growth. - Ecocean

  • The Montpellier company Ecocean has developed fish shelters.
  • The first results are positive in the Alpes-Maritimes report the presence of nearly 200 individuals in the ports of Cannes and Cap d'Ail.
  • 46 new modules will be installed this Thursday at Camille Rayon port, in Golfe-Juan.

The life of baby fish is not a long, calm river. At sea, only one in ten survives. And when they are in an artificial environment, the mortality rate reaches 99.9%.

To save these little aquatic fighters who grow up in Mediterranean ports, the Ecocean company installs fish nurseries, called "biohut". These steel cages filled with oyster shells (food cages), associated with empty cages (protective cages), allow the post-larvae to take shelter from predators during their growth, before setting off again.

The Vauban and Croutons ports in Antibes, the Canto port in Cannes, as well as the port of Cap d'Ail, are already equipped in the Alpes-Maritimes. 46 new modules will be launched this Thursday at Camille Rayon port in Golfe-Juan.

A baby royal grouper appears in Cannes

Is this device really effective? To find out, Ecocean carries out ecological monitoring three times a year, for four years. At Port Canto, in Cannes, 194 individuals from twenty different species of aquatic fauna have been counted in the 43 fish nurseries established since June 2018. Among them, a six-centimeter baby grouper. A first for six years in a Mediterranean port.

In detail, nine species of fish were sighted, several of which are of interest for local fishing: the pointed snout sar, the black-headed sar and the pageot. Just like eleven species of vagile fauna - that of the aquatic animals which move by crawling on the bottom -, among which the scallop and the pink shrimp.

Nearly 200 individuals in Cap d'Ail

In the port of Cap d'Ail, 192 individuals were observed in the first year. Five species of fish and nine species of vagile fauna.

Among them, there are two species of commercial interest: the pointed snout and the crenilabre-tench. Good news for the economy linked to the sea. “We are unable to give precise figures. But with the "biohut", we repopulate the sea. This is necessarily interesting for local fishing and ecotourism ", reacts Sabrina Palmieri, communications officer for Montpellier society.

In the skin of small fish

Biohut aims to restore the natural life cycle of fish - Ecocean

In order to make schoolchildren aware of the plight of baby fish, Ecocean will organize a life-size game this Thursday. “We transform the participants into fish with chasubles, explains Sabrina Palmieri. They must avoid the various traps (pollution, predators, etc.). From thirty at the start of the game, they end at three, as in reality. At the end of the game, the children understand that the fish they have on the plate is a real warrior. "

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