Our Mission and Activities

Still on the subject of ascidians! Mer et littoral organized two days of guidance on ascidian identification for researchers from the Arcachon Marine Station.

We are setting off with the MNHN for a three-week biodiversity survey of the Strait of Bonifacio as part of the "La Planète Revisitée Corse" (The Planet Revisited: Corsica) mission. The goal: to inventory the ascidians of Corsica.

We are pleased to introduce Botrylloides crystallinus or, for those in the know, the "crystalline botryllid"! Its description was published in Zoosystema, the journal of the National Museum of Natural History.
Read the article.

Mer et littoral has just published the first identification guide dedicated to ascidians and salps. This guide features over 110 species of ascidians and salps found along European coasts. Authors: Anne and Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Find out more

Mer et littoral is becoming a publisher and has founded M&L Éditions, specializing in marine flora and fauna. Do you have a project or ideas? Please don’t hesitate to contact us.

After several years of trying to identify this ascidian, we have finally determined that it is an as-yet undescribed species of Botrylloides. We are now setting to work on its description!

In 2013 and 2014, members of the CIPBL and the Mer et Littoral association participated in and provided scientific support for the underwater inventory of Île Dumet (Loire-Atlantique). Download the final report.

The Mer et Littoral association organizes numerous annual outings for seaside school trips, teaching children about the flora and fauna of the coast. Over the past four years, more than 1,500 children have eagerly discovered the small marine life found on the Breton foreshore.

Publication of the seventh and final edition of the Agenda de la mer et des marins by Prat Éditions. A wonderful experience!

Regarding the carnivorous sponge discovered in Groix:
Unexpected records of ’deep-sea’ carnivorous sponges Asbestopluma hypogea in the shallow NE Atlantic shed light on new conservation issues.

The latest issue of *Sciences et Vie* features an interesting article on jellyfish, highlighting the "Opération Méduses de Mer et Littoral" program, which studies the proliferation of jellyfish in the oceans.

From June 5 to 7, 2013, Thomas Bastian (Mer et littoral) was in Hiroshima, Japan, for the Fourth International Jellyfish Bloom Symposium.

Visit by Mr. François Hollande, President of the Republic, to the citizen sciences stand hosted by the Mer et littoral group during the Tonnerres de Brest 2012 festival. Photo: Pascal Segrette, Official Photographer to the Presidency of the Republic.

You may have met us at the Science Village during the 2012 edition of Les Tonnerres de Brest and like many visitors learned more about citizen science and the "Opération Méduses" organized by Mer et Littoral.

Presentation of the "Opération Méduses" program at the citizen diving science symposium "De Rhizoma à 20 000 yeux sous Manche-Atlantique," organized by the Marine Protected Areas Agency and the CIBPL on January 21 and 22, 2012, in La Pommeraye (49).

As part of our participation in the BIOSUBZH citizen science program, we surveyed the ascidian fauna found off the coast of Saint-Malo.
Solitary and colonial ascidians in algal level 3, Les Courtis – Saint-Malo.

Discovery of carnivorous sponges off the coast of Groix at a depth of 30 meters. This is the first discovery of this type of sponge on the Atlantic coast.
Find out more.

Launch of Operation Méduses citizen science project. Thanks to your reports, we hope to learn more about the movement and stranding of jellyfish along our coasts.

Publication of the Agenda de la mer et des marins 2008 by Prat Edition. The texts, illustrated with antique engravings, are co-authored by Anne and Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat of Mer et Littoral association.

Launch of the Mer et littoral website. Mer et littoral is the first and oldest French website dedicated to identifying the marine flora and fauna of Western Europe.
- https://www.mer-littoral.org -

The Mer et littoral association was established on April 23, 2004. Its statutes were filed with the Finistère prefecture.