"HISTORY
Coastal fishing
“Granville was a great oyster fishing port. » .
From the 17th century to 1922, fishing for wild, flat or horse-foot oysters dominated coastal fishing activities in Granville. In the 19th century, 80 million oysters were still brought back to port, but at the beginning of the 20th century, only "between one and three million" were caught. It is practiced from September to May in the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, aboard bisquines equipped with dredges. Regulations set the fishing days and times. The oysters are landed, sorted and sold at the port, either for direct consumption or for fattening in the parks.
At that time, there was an oyster cannery in Granville. Between 1828 and 1835, according to Charles de la Morandière, "the number of shelled oysters was such that their shells formed an enormous deposit in front of the port of Granville, the talard, an immense mound 300 meters long by almost as wide and 2 3 meters high. They serve as backfill for the construction of the rue Lecampion district. Overexploitation of wild oyster beds led to their disappearance around 1920. Oyster farming took over.
In 1842, oyster fishing mobilized 100 boats manned by 700/800 men.
Offshore fishing
From the middle of the 16th century, Granville chartered a dozen Newfoundlanders.
In the years 1750-1780, Granville was the only deep-sea port in the Channel: it outfitted around a hundred vessels for deep-sea fishing.
The great cod fishery on the banks of Newfoundland (known locally as "the bank") was very active from Granville throughout the 19th century. The flotilla brought together under the Restoration (1814-1830) around fifty ships and 3,000 sailors, from Granville and the surrounding villages. In 1904, 34 ships cast off from Granville, bringing together a thousand men; they were 43 the previous year. The activity practically disappeared on the eve of the First World War. The last Newfoundland, a survivor named Thérésa, was accidentally destroyed on April 11, 1933 in the lock of the port of Granville after colliding with a Ponts-et-Chaussées steamer named Augustin Fresnel.
FLOTILLA OVER TIME
In 1842, deep-sea fishing brought together 72 boats manned by 2,445 sailors. Oyster fishing still mobilizes a hundred boats and 700 to 800 men, but it is in significant decline: the boats now only bring back 2,000 to 4,000 oysters each fishing day compared to 40,000 to 50,000 fifteen years previously.
In 1900, there were still 37 ships that left to fish for cod on the banks of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. There were only 14 left in 1914.
After the First World War, the Granville fleet had 10 three-masters with a tonnage of 3,260 tons, which worked for the Société des Pêcheries de France and a local shipowner.
In 2016, the fishing port of Granville welcomes 52 vessels divided into 7 trawlers over 16 m, 16 trawlers from 12 to 16 m, 9 trawlers under 12 m, 7 shellfish traps and 13 bulotiers traps.
PRODUCTION
Granville fishermen mainly supply shellfish (clams, whelks, scallops) as well as cuttlefish, almonds, sea bream and sole.
3,030 tonnes in 1970, 5,884 t in 1974, 9,324 t in 2009 (€16 million), 12,409 t in 2010 (€19 million).
Scallop shell: Granville is the leading shell port in France, with 7,300 tonnes in 2009 and nearly 8,900 tonnes in 2011.
Whelks: Granville is the leading European port for whelks fishing, generating about fifty jobs on the boats."