Discover the Saint-Clément-des-Baleines fish lock!
A unique piece of historical heritage, this ancestral fishing technique involves trapping fish in a horseshoe-shaped drystone structure. These ‘meadows of the sea’, surrounded by a curvilinear drystone wall, are flooded at high tide and trap the fish at ebb tide. When the sea recedes, the fish are locked in and all the fishermen have to do is catch them.
Of the 140 locks on the shores of the Ile de Ré at the end of the 19th century, only 14 remain today. The first fish locks or pêcheries on the island date back a thousand years. They were essential for feeding the population of the island.
The last remaining lock at Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, ‘La Moufette’ or ‘Moufflet’, is located between the coast and the Baleineaux lighthouse. It required many hours of repair work by volunteers after the storm of 1999.
Of the 140 locks on the shores of the Ile de Ré at the end of the 19th century, only 14 remain today. The first fish locks or pêcheries on the island date back a thousand years. They were essential for feeding the population of the island.
The last remaining lock at Saint-Clément-des-Baleines, ‘La Moufette’ or ‘Moufflet’, is located between the coast and the Baleineaux lighthouse. It required many hours of repair work by volunteers after the storm of 1999.
