Category: Shipyard, ports, maritime or aerial logistics

Faced with the growing impact of human activities on coastal areas, particularly on the habitats of young fish, urgent action is required. These juvenile fish, which are essential elements of coastal marine ecosystems, often struggle to find preserved natural habitats due to the degradation caused by artificial development.
It was against this backdrop that Ecocean was founded in 2003, a French company based in Montpellier and dedicated to ecological engineering, first for marine ecosystems and then more generally for aquatic ecosystems. Since its inception, Ecocean has positioned itself as a leader in this field, offering innovative, simple but above all effective and scientifically validated solutions to improve the living conditions of aquatic organisms, particularly young fish, during the early stages of their life cycle.
One of the flagship solutions developed by Ecocean is the Biohut®: an artificial nursery designed to provide both shelter and food for young aquatic animals. Composed of a steel cage filled with oyster shells (natural substrate) acting as a complex support for the development of a diversified food source (trophic chain) and an empty cage offering protection against predators, they reproduce the essential criteria of a natural nursery. Ecocean has designed 7 types of Biohut® to be installed in different locations, depending on the existing artificial structures. 

The coastal region of Normandy boasts France’s second highest wind energy potential and the nation’s biggest reservoir of tidal energy in the Alderney Race. Supported by local policy guidelines, Ports of Normandy is aware that its harbour installations and local know-how put its ports in a prime position to harness the sector’s potential. Port de Normandie soon set to work finding out what industrial concerns and energy suppliers needed to develop MRE in its ports.
The face of Cherbourg has evolved considerably over the last seven years. As the strong arm of local government institutions, Ports of Normandy is making a major contribution to the emergence of this new sector and bringing a breath of fresh air to the port of Cherbourg’s activity. It is proving to be successful thanks to a level of infrastructure that is seen as one of the highest in the country. Ports of Normandy is drawing on unique conditions to provide an appropriate response to needs for industrial manufacturing, logistics, and construction and maintenance of offshore wind farms and tidal turbines and also for innovation.
This strategy has convinced Eolien Maritime France (EMF) who assemble two of its wind farms (Courseulles and Fécamp) in Cherbourg.