Pêche à pied en sortie d’estuaire de Seine

Recreational shellfish gathering is a traditional and popular activity that has been little studied by the social sciences. Yet it has drawn increasing attention as an environmental and public health concern. This article shows how mussel gathering in the outer zone of the Seine estuary came to be seen as a public health risk by government authorities and how this risk was ignored or discredited by the gatherers themselves. The body of data includes 389 questionnaire responses as well as data from interviews, field observation and the logbooks of those concerned.The work of authorities who constructed shellfish gathering as a public health risk was first identified. Then we examined the measures for prevention and monitoring that were taken and observed differences in how the estuary territory is managed, therefore constructing different indifferences or deviations.Although some sites are policed, the most attractive shellfish gathering sites are not controlled and remain, despite their prohibited status, among the most highly frequented. What are the rationales for actions of the populations most “exposed” to risk ? To understand the practices of all concerned, it is important to account for the divergent interests that are manifested within this territory