The port of La Turballe is a French coastal facility combining fishing and recreational boating activities. It includes a fish auction hall and a careening yard. The port is located in the commune of La Turballe, in the Loire-Atlantique department, within the “rade du Croisic,” the bay extending from Croisic Point in the south to in Piriac-sur-Mer in the northwest.
Presentation The Loire-Atlantique department has 133 kilometers of coastline. The port of La Turballe is the only deep-water port between the and , with the other ports being tidal. It is part of the Saint-Nazaire Le P'tit Turballais, newsletter from La Turballe Town Hall, No. 10, July–August 2015 and supports multiple maritime activities:
Fishing, the original and main activity, supported by dedicated docks, a fishing fleet, and a fish auction hall. Ship repair,The first shipbuilding and repair yard in La Turballe was established in 1975 by Marcel Vandernotte. The 2,000 m² facility was located in the Marjolaine area, on the site now occupied by the Super U gas station. Vandernotte sold the company in 1988, and operations ceased shortly thereafter under the new ownership. for both fishing and recreational boats, made possible by a high-capacity boat lift and a careening area. Recreational boating, benefiting from the deep-water port. Passenger traffic, a secondary activity that provides connections in July and August to the islands of Houat, Hœdic, and Belle-Île-en-Mer. Renewable marine energy, with the maintenance base for the Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm.
Fishing The fishing port of La Turballe, owned by the Loire-Atlantique Departmental Council, has been managed since January 1, 2011, by the Loire-Atlantique Pêche et Plaisance.The mixed-economy company Loire-Atlantique Pêche et Plaisance was established in 2010 by the Loire-Atlantique Department to manage the mixed fishing and pleasure ports of Le Croisic and La Turballe. The company, holder of the public service management delegation, has a share capital of €600,000, employs 36 people, and has an annual turnover of approximately €5.3 million. Its objectives include overseeing the marketing of fish products in Loire-Atlantique and supporting the development of the ports under its management. It is the leading fishing port in the Pays de la Loire region and ranks fourteenth in France, with 4,900 tons of fish landed in 2023. The port provides employment for around 300 people in various sectors, including fishing, fish trading, wholesale, transport, marine mechanics, and auction services.
The main species landed at the port include anchovy (25%), sardine (19%), albacore tuna (16%), hake (15%), cuttlefish (6%), mackerel (6%), squid (3%), sea bass (3%), grey sea bream (2%), whiting (1%), sole (1%), mullet (1%), and horse mackerel (1%). Since June 2012, some of these species have been certified under the Produit en Presqu’île de Guérande label, established by an association supported by the Chambers of Trades and Crafts, Agriculture, and Commerce and Industry. This label promotes the quality of local products and the know-how of producers from the Guérande peninsula.
Fleet In 2024, the La Turballe fishing fleet comprised 53 vessels, each with a maximum length of 25 meters and hulls made of wood, metal, or plastic. The port is dedicated exclusively to artisanal fishing. Larger boats are moored in the Garlahy basin, which has been protected by a storm gate since 1991, while smaller vessels are docked near the marina.
Among the boats registered at the port, 55 are listed with the Fisheries Committee: 20 pelagic vessels measuring 20 to 24 meters, 24 trawlers between 10 and 20 meters, and several line, net, or trap fishers ranging from 8 to 12 meters, depending on the season. In 2015, the commune had approximately 250 fishers.
Fishing methods practiced at La Turballe include fixed gear, such as traps, nets, lines, and longlines, as well as towed gear, including bottom and pelagic trawls. Depending on vessel size and fishing area, trips may range from 4 to 20 days for offshore fishing, 1 to 4 days for coastal fishing, and less than 24 hours for small-scale fishing. Catches are sorted on board, packed in boxes with flake ice supplied from the port’s ice tower, and stored in onboard refrigeration units. The fish are then unloaded at the port using cranes installed in 1984 and 2024 and transported to the auction hall.
Fish auction The fish auction hall at La Turballe was inaugurated on June 13, 1970, replacing an earlier facility demolished the same year. Auctions take place from Monday to Friday between 4:00 and 6:00 a.m. Since 2011, the ports of La Turballe and Le Croisic have been jointly managed by the Loire-Atlantique Departmental Council. Both auction halls remain in operation, with shared technical resources.
Renovated in 1995, the La Turballe auction hall comprises a sorting and weighing area, a cold room maintained at +2 °C for fish storage, and a 1,000 m² temperature-controlled auction hall kept between 7 °C and 8 °C for professional use. The facility also includes 12 processing workshops with individual cold rooms, two refrigerated waste rooms, a container washing area, a shipping terminal with five loading docks, and ice plants capable of producing up to 100 tons of ice per day with automated continuous distribution. Additional cold storage rooms with a total capacity of 130 tons ensure product preservation.
Before the boats return, cargo details are communicated to the port for entry on the landing declaration board. After unloading, the fish is weighed, labeled, and stored in a cold room pending a veterinary inspection. It is then transferred to the auction hall, where boxes are placed on the floor for viewing by buyers. Auctions, reserved for wholesalers, traders, and fishmongers, take place at 5:00 a.m.
Since January 1995, the traditional auctioneer has been replaced by a mobile electronic auction system operated by two agents responsible for conducting descending-price sales and managing transactions. The computerized system is connected to the auction management office and processing workshops via the Internet. Each sale displays on screen the buyer’s name, purchase price, lot number, and vessel name. Lots that do not meet the minimum annual price are withdrawn from sale. Since January 2012, a remote electronic auction system has enabled buyers to participate online, with purchase limits determined by a security deposit paid before the auction.
Fish trade The fish trader is the intermediary between fishermen and wholesalers. The trader purchases seafood in bulk at fish auctions and maintains regular contact with clients, adjusting communications according to daily arrivals. During the auction, the trader calculates profit margins and communicates selling prices directly to clients. Additionally, the trader oversees the tracking of sales through the packaging, wrapping, and shipping processes, while ensuring adherence to the time-sensitive requirements of the cold chain.
The fish trading company operates a shop or processing workshop within the seafood center. The workshop receives raw materials from the auction and, according to client orders, sorts, weighs, grades, ices, and packs the fish in polystyrene boxes. The products are then transported in refrigerated trucks to clients in France, including national wholesale markets (, Rungis, etc.), or to destinations within the European Union.
Goods leaving the port of La Turballe are labeled in accordance with European standards. Each box bears a freshness label indicating the shipping date, the sender’s name, the approval number, and the vessel name. Fish traders in La Turballe primarily obtain their products from the port, though some also source from other ports in Charente-Maritime, Brittany, or Normandy.
Ship repair
Careening operations, which involve painting or maintenance of fishing and recreational boats, are primarily conducted in May. In 1991, a storm gate, the only one of its kind in France, was installed to protect the Garlahy basin, where the largest fishing vessels dock, from swells originating from the southwest. The barrier contributes to the safety of sailors and their equipment.
The self-propelled boat lift operates at the Garlahy dockyard. It is equipped with four twin wheels, including two rear-driven wheels, a hydraulic engine, and a lifting capacity of 260 tons. The lift uses straps to cradle the hull of a vessel, performing hoisting, launching, and transport operations to the careening area for maintenance or drying. Its operation involves a driver in the control cabin and a ground operator to guide the maneuver, which typically lasts between one and one and a half hours.
History
Origins Sardine fishing has been a traditional activity in the bay of Le Croisic. The first recorded mention of a fishing boat in the port of La Turballe dates to 1656. In the mid-17th century, the local waters provided regular catches during sardine migration periods, supporting the livelihoods of the small number of fishing families in the hamlet, which was then located at the western tip of Guérande. Limited preservation and transportation methods initially confined the market for the catch to the local area.
The first fish preservation technique, known as preservation by pressing, was introduced from southern France. Sardines were washed, dried, pressed to extract oil, smoked, salted,Le P'tit Turballais, newsletter from La Turballe Town Hall, No. 8, April–May 2015 and stored in wooden barrels. This method allowed the fish to be preserved for seven to eight months and transported to southern France. Subsequently, many sardine presses were established along the Breton coast.
The development of canning, or appertisation, transformed fish preservation. This process was developed by Parisian confectioner Nicolas Appert in 1795, who commercialized food sealed in airtight glass containers and boiled, allowing it to be preserved for several years. The tin can was later introduced. In 1810, Joseph Colin, a confectioner from Nantes, applied these techniques to sardines, packaging them on an artisanal scale in small tin-plated iron cans with soldered lids, creating the “sardine à la nantaise.”
His son, Pierre-Joseph Colin, fifteen years later, began industrial-scale production and in 1825 founded the world’s first sardine cannery on in Nantes. He developed the method of packing sardines tightly together in a bath of oil, establishing the technique of preserving sardines in oil. The cans were round, made of tinplate, soldered, and sealed with a copper plate. This process, which ensured both flavor and extended shelf life, achieved immediate commercial success. The first canned sardines in oil were thus packed in Nantes using fish caught in La Turballe, a world first of which the small port was likely unaware.
At the time, communication between the port of La Turballe and Nantes was limited, and in the absence of a railway, Pierre-Joseph Colin had the fish transported by stagecoach. To ensure a regular supply, reduce the impact of the journey on product freshness, and meet growing demand, tinworker François Deffés established, in 1830, a seasonal facility near the port of La Turballe on the coastline to supply the industry with tinplate cans.
Rise of the canning industry
Although the first sardine cannery was established in Nantes, the first cannery located directly at a fishing site was set up in La Turballe in 1824. Research by the association Au gré des vents indicates that seventeen canneries were created in La Turballe, with eleven having been precisely identified, including: