The main objectives of the stationary approach implemented in this mission are:

• detect medium and long-term changes in coastal benthic ecosystems;
• characterize these changes qualitatively (composition and structure of communities, groups of species, species) and quantitatively (in terms of abundance and biomass);
• contribute with other levels of approach to explain these changes by considering the respective shares of natural and / or anthropogenic variability of local, regional or global origin.

To achieve these objectives, reference points representative of the main habitats and populations of coastal environments are regularly sampled according to hierarchized and standardized protocols.
In addition, since 2007, some monitoring programs have been integrated into the WFD monitoring program. Since 2015, in addition to the Pierre Noire site (initially the sole point of support of REBENT-DCE) two other sites have been added, these are the sites of Concarneau and Bay of Vilaine.