Dredging off the Brittany coast

Brittany and its coastal areas are among the most popular tourist destinations in France.  Besides the history and charming small towns, people are drawn to the coasts to see all manner of sea birds and marine life.  Tour companies organize multi-day explorations along coastal areas like the Rose Granite Coast in the Côtes d'Armor department.  In fact, we're planning on hiking in that area later this year with friends.

At the moment, people living around the Lannion Bay feel all of this is under threat.  The Bay, as the map shows, is just off the coast of Côtes d'Armor and neighboring Finistère.  Le Monde reports that a company based in nearby St. Malo wants to begin dredging shell sand out of the bay.

© Le Monde

The Companie Armoricaine de Navigation (CAN), a subsidiary of the Group Roullier, has a request pending to extract 8 million cubic meters (282.4 million cubic feet) of sand from an underwater dune.  If granted, the concession would extend for 20 years.  CAN's request has been filed at the Ministry of Industrial Renewal, headed by Arnaud Montebourg.

So far, it's not clear when and how Montebourg will decide.  But he will need to take into account that all 13 local councils in communities around the Bay have voted against the project.  Also, 31 associations, under the banner "People of the Dunes," have united to press their opposition.

They point out that the proposed dredging area is right between two marine zones protected under the Natura 2000 program.  This is an E.U. program meant to preserve biodiversity in critical areas.  Opponents fear that the dredging will kick up fine particulate matter that will drift into the protected areas, covering the bottom of the bay and threatening various forms of sea life.  They also point out that the dune that would be subject to the dredging is a breeding ground for sand eels, an important link in the local food chain.

© Valéry Joncheray Photographie

The company responds that alternatives to obtaining the sand from the dune would still have environmental impacts.  Getting the sand from places on land, they say, would mean putting large numbers of trucks on the roads to its plants in Brittany.  A spokesman said CAN was prepared to do more studies of environmental impact on the dune if requested by departmental authorities.

Whatever the status of the issue when we're there in August -- still pending or decided -- it'll certainly add interest to the visit.