1 History
The first uses of seaweed in history
An implijoù kentañ eus ar bezhin en amzer dremenet
Brittany is home to one of the largest seaweed “fields” in Europe. For centuries, harvesting seaweed was an essential activity for the poor communities living along the coast, as here, in the Léon country.
At first, seaweed was used above all to enrich the soil. Thanks to it, Léon became renowned for its market gardening, especially in an area known as the “golden belt”. It was sometimes burnt as fuel, in places where wood was scarce.
Little by little, industry began to draw on scientific discoveries. Seaweed was first used to make glass. Then the discovery of iodine in seaweed ash gave work to thousands of people for more than a century. Finally, in the second half of the 20th century, the iodine industry gave way to the alginates industry.
Three seaweeds, three ways of harvesting
Seaweed is harvested in different ways, depending on how easy it is to reach along the coast and on the season. Three kinds are distinguished:
- Drift seaweed (goémon épave): every species alike, torn free by the sea and washed up on the beach. It is gathered with a foreshore rake. It is used mainly for the soil improvement of farmland.
- Shore seaweed (algues de rive): the seaweed that grows on the rocks of the intertidal zone, the stretch of shore uncovered between high and low tide. Among it, black seaweed (goémon noir) brings together a wide variety of brown seaweed used above all as fertiliser. Here too grows the pioka, a red seaweed used as a gelling agent.
- Deep-water seaweed (goémon de fond): the kelp, brown seaweed growing on rocky seabeds and covered by water at all times. It is harvested at sea, from boats built for the task.
The seaweed harvesters’ country
This history unfolds along one particular stretch of coast, in the north-west of Finistère: the Bas-Léon and the Haut-Léon, with the pays Pagan and the pays des Abers, facing the Molène archipelago and the island of Ouessant.
Argenton, Porspoder, Lanildut, Portsall, Plouguerneau, Kerlouan, the Aber-Ildut, the Aber-Benoît, the Aber-Wrac’h: so many harbours and foreshores where families lived to the rhythm of the tides and the seaweed seasons.