Les gisements naturels d'huîtres indigènes (Ostrea edulis) et d'huîtres portugaises (Gryphea angulata) sur les côtes françaises

The indigenous or flat (Ostrea edulis) oyster deposits used to form an almost uninterrupted line along our coasts. This richness lasted until the XVIIIth century. In the areas where the sea was receding, the deposits were mudded out or ruined, but others formed where the ocean had flooded inland, like the deposits of the Mont Saint-Michel Bay (1). All these deposits have been exploited without regulations for a long time. The 1681 ordinance regulates mussel fishing, but does not mention oysters. The jurisconsult Valin, Prosecutor of the King of the Admiralty of La Rochelle, in his "Comment upon the August 1681 ordinance, dealing with the navy", provides us with the answer: The natural deposits are, he says, endless.