Shellfish farming areas can have different meanings. Sometimes their identification is prescribed and used for health classification of production areas. In Euroshell project, the choice was made to map the production areas whose identification makes sense for both scientists and professionals. A limited number of areas is then showed, often corresponding to a hydrographic reality. Indeed, the shellfish industry is mainly installed in estuaries, river mouths, bays, fjords, estuaries or lagoons. This map shows the shellfish production sites, which include several areas. Some information is given on species produced, the number of companies and / or concessions and / or producers, the approximate amount of production.

Localization of professional organizations linked to shellfish farming within Euroshell project

Terrestrial areas of Western Europe (including islands of metropolitan France)

In order to bridge the gap between shellfish growers and scientists, a layer is built with the list of organizations thatproduce or transfer knowledge in the shellfish sector. Academic or applied research centers, experts, training and education sector, monitoring networks and regional centers are recorded and data are collected on their size, address, website link, fundings, etc.

Since 2008, the Coastal Chemical Contamination Observation Network (ROCCH) has taken over from RNO (French National Observation Network for Quality in Marine Environments), which had existed since 1974. ROCCH aims to meet national, community and international obligations relating to monitoring chemicals in marine environments. It is therefore more of a control network than a heritage network as RNO once was. The backbone of ROCCH is to apply the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) and to meet the obligations set out in OSPAR Conventions and in Barcelona. As the WFD insisted on decentralization, ROCCH has gone from having just one project leader (the Ministry for the Environment) to having many decision-makers (water agencies, DIREN etc.). Chemical analyses are no longer conducted by IFREMER alone, but are attributed to other partners following calls for tender. ROCC also includes the monitoring of chemicals in shellfish production areas for the Food safety agency (DGAL) and the Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries. Monitoring focuses on the three regulated metals: mercury, lead and cadmium in the given areas. Monitoring of these chemical contaminants is conducted in the three marine matrices: water, biota and sediment. Testing also includes imposex, the biological effect of tributyltin (TBT), as required by the OSPAR convention.

The French national network (REMI) includes a regular monitoring system and a warning system: - The regular monitoring system checks that the level of microbiological contamination in each production area remains within the limits set by the classification defined in the prefectural decree and tests unusual occurrences of contamination. - The warning system is triggered when results of the monotoring programme exceed or are at risk of exceeding the norms defining the quality classes and thresholds, or in case of contamination risk (pollution spillage, storms, etc.), or even in the case of a suspected or confirmed epidemic in shellfish.