BENTHOMONT 1

Type Oceanographic cruise
Ship Côtes De La Manche
Ship owner CNRS until 2019 - IFREMER since 2020
Dates 25/03/2002 - 08/04/2002
Chief scientist(s) OLIVIER Fredéric

CRESCO - MNHN, STATION DE BIOLOGIE MARINE DE DINARD

Centre de Recherche et d'Enseignement sur Systèmes Côtiers

38 rue du Port Blanc

BP 70134

35800 DINARD

+33(0)2 23 18 58 88

https://www.mnhn.fr/fr/station-de-biologie-marine-de-dinard-cresco
DOI 10.17600/2480010
Objective This cruise's special objective was to quantify the biomass of wild filtrerer/suspension-feeder populations in coarse sediments, where bivalve mollusks and gastropods (crepidula) predominate, in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel and the Norman-Breton gulf. The issue was raised by the request of the PNEC programmes Mont Saint-Michel bay worksite, dealing with two levels of major questions: 1) Can the bay's trophic capacity become a limiting factor for development of shellfish farming? What repercussions could an increase in farmed bivalve stocks have on the general functioning of this ecosystem? 2) Seeing the exceptional ecological and economic interest of this bay, how can the seabeds be recovered or remediated, if they were to be altered by an event like a disaster? What mechanisms would come into play in the biological recolonization of habitats from 'reservoirs' outside of the bay? Might the gulf's own hydrodynamic characteristics hinder the restoration process?