Feeding relationships between the benthic infauna and the dominant benthic fish of the Rance Estuary (France)

INTRODUCTION The maritime basin of the Ranee occupies one of the largest rias of northern Brittany (France) and since 1967, has been the location of a tidal power station. At a high tide height of 13.5 m above chart datum the basin occupies an area of 22 km 2 within which Retière (1979) recognized a maritime part of about 17 km 2 in extent, where bottom salinities range from 30 to 35‰, an estuarine part with salinities between 20-30‰,, of about 4 km 2 and an inner estuary of limited area (1.5 km 2 ) and reduced salinities (less than 20‰).