Young oysters in most French breeding regions are dying at much higher rates than normal and scientists have yet to understand the causes, marine environmental experts said on Friday.
 

Oysters are a popular Christmas treat in France which
produces 130,000 tonnes annually, making France the fourth
biggest producer after China, Japan and South Korea.
 

A national committee of shellfish farmers held a meeting in
Paris to look into findings by marine biologists which shows
that between 40 and 100 percent of young oysters were dying,
depending on the areas.
"What we seem to have is a conjunction of multiple factors
concerning the oyster itself and the environment it's in, and
there could also be pathogens," Michel Ropert, an environmental
scientist at a marine lab in Normandy, told French television.
 

France's main marine research body, the Ifremer, said the
oysters affected by the unusual mortality rate are those aged 12
to 18 months, which should have reached maturity in time for
Christmas 2009.
 

All main oyster-breeding areas in France are affected by the
mortality problem, except one specific area at Arcachon on the
west coast. Scientists do not know why Arcachon is spared.
 

"Even within the affected oceanic basins, certain zones are
hit and others are not," an Ifremer spokesman said.
 

French media reported oyster producers were worried about a
possible virus like the one that decimated oyster beds in the
1970s. Other possible causes of the problem could be a toxic
seaweed, pollution or a change in water temperature.