The prefect rejects the mussel-farming project off Omaha Beach

After a one-month public inquiry and a major international mobilization, the prefect of the region and Calvados refused the establishment of four mussel farms in the Omaha Beach area.

The town hall of Vierville-sur-Mer had received 848 emails and 695 signatures. Associations, individuals and veterans defended the historical character of the beach where the American soldiers of the 29th and 1st divisions had landed. On June 5, a team from France 2 came to meet former GI Franck Towers, opposed to the project.

The site June 1944, a wind of freedom devoted a column to this case. Messages arrived in particular from Belgium, Switzerland, the United States and France. Robert Lenoir, a Flemish Internet user, expressed his indignation in the name of the respect due to the men who had fought and given their lives on this beach.

In a letter to Internet users dated May 10, Mayor Jean-Marie Oxéant thanked these support. He explained that the elected officials had first felt isolated, then carried by an international mobilization. He reaffirmed his refusal of a project that he considered imposed on the municipality.

Two and a half months after the investigation closed, Francis Idrac rejected the request. His decision invoked the historical and tourist vocation of the site, recognized by an order of November 22, 1946, as well as its inclusion in a major site operation devoted to the natural landscapes of the Battle of Normandy, decided on July 9, 2001 by the Interministerial Spatial Planning Committee. He considered a marine aquaculture concession incompatible with this national and international vocation. The Marine Aquaculture Committee also issued an unfavourable opinion on July 4.

Jean-Marie Oxéant welcomed this refusal with relief and satisfaction. He believed that the citizens and their elected officials had been heard, after a file that he considered unclear and a meeting without further action with one of the promoters. He wanted this decision to put an end to aquaculture projects there and allow him to devote himself to Operation Grand Site, in order to give Omaha its place in the history of the Landing.

In conclusion, the newspaper evoked the expected satisfaction of opponents, especially the families of the 3,000 soldiers it presented as dead on the beach of Omaha in June 1944.

Reconstructed or uncertain passages:
- The figure of 3,000 deaths is that advanced by this article; it is not a new verification of the human toll. The dates of June 5, May 10 and July 4 do not carry their year in the fragment: they remain linked to the course of the case described in the clip.

Archive image: https://vierville.cordelle.eu/Photos2008/2002-MoulieresRefusprefetJuillet2002.jpg