“This beach should be closed”, Jean Hascöet says.
The president of the environmental organization Baie de Douarnenez Environnement shows us around the beaches he grew up on at the far end of the Bay of Douarnenez.
This page features a snapshot of a project.
For more information, including videos, photos, and other materials, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Green Algae
“Phosphogeddon.” Expanding dead zones and the threat of oceanic anoxia due to emissions from the farming industry is an explosive topic in Brittany, where production of one third of French meat and cheese production takes place. Hascöet has seen the changes up close.
Although the French State is ordered by court to effectively strengthen its fight against the green algae that have been swarming on the Breton coast for many years, scientists and activists are calling out the authorities for hushing down the problem as to not repel the tourists that are drawn to the beaches and hospitality of Bretagne.
A gray-white belt that stretches several kilometers in each direction on the elongated beach. The color is similar to the sand, grey-white and light. Withered, dried green threads that are thrown against the beach settle in belts. The membrane on top becomes a tight lid, containing hydrogen sulphide that erupts when the surface is broken.
Hascöet steps on the brittle crust with its foot. A strong stench spreads.
“We'd better go now”, he says.
