Kelps harvesting in Brittany, what future knowing 125 years of exploitation.Science to Policy

Martial Laurans¹

¹Ifremer, France

In Brittany, the algae exploitation exists for a long time with many way to use its. If we focus on the kelps, the exploitation is yet in place after more than 300 years of history for the Laminaria digitata and Laminaria hyperborea. Of course, a lot of change have been performed to arrive to the current situation. Today, we have a long time series of data to analyse the recent evolution of the fishery which exploit these kelps, from 1950 to now. Three main aspects can be analysed to well understand the kelp exploitation in place today : -First, the annual abondance index of the Laminaria digitata population from a coastal surveys since 1985 ; -Twice, the daily declaration data of the harvest from all vessels in the fleet for 40 years. -The development and the evolution of a management plan. Considering these points, we will present how this field has evolved and all the current challenges she has to integrate to continue the kelps exploitation in the actual climate change and the fact this field plays a role in the economy brittany coast structuration.