Abstract of the book in English  

This book presents the evolution of the seaweed industry in Brittany, harvesting and processing, from 1681 to the present day.  It is based mainly on historical documents and presents seaweed harvesting, processing industry, the living conditions of coastal populations and harvesters, etc. The data used for the realisation of this book comes from the District archives of Finistère. They are letters of grievance, minutes of meetings of inter-professional organisations, municipalities/ communal deliberations, etc.

In order to complement the documents already published on the seaweed harvesting in Brittany, we have chosen to concentrate our work on themes that seem to be less developed. Thus, this book focuses on the evolution of the activity over time, the transition from the iodine to the alginate industry and the emergence of edible seaweed, the organisation of the sector, management of the resources, inter and intra-professional relations….  

In parallel, testimonies from seaweed harvesters are presented in order to illustrate the current situation of the activity and its practices.  The aim is to show the reality of the job and the importance of safeguarding and promoting practices and know-how for future generations.

This book was produced within the frame of IDEALG (ANR-10-BTBR-04) “Investissements d’Avenir,  Biotechnologies-Bioressources” and PERICLES “European Union’s Horizon 2020 – Research and Innovation Research and Innovation programme” (Grant Agreement n° 770504).