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

• detect medium- and long-term changes in coastal benthic ecosystems;
• characterize these changes qualitatively (composition and structure of communities, species groups, 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 stands of coastal environments are regularly sampled according to hierarchical and standardized protocols.

In addition, since 2007, some station monitoring has been integrated into the WFD's monitoring program. Since 2015, in addition to the Pierre Noire site (initially the only support point for the REBENT-DCE), two other sites have been added, namely the Concarneau and Baie de Vilaine sites.