The Bay of Seine is a potentially important nursery ground, especially for flatfish. This area, however, is also strongly anthropogen- ically influenced. A composite approach was cho- sen to compare the flatfish nursery function of the Seine estuary with other coastal and estuarine areas and to determine the impact of anthropo- genic disturbances. It emerges that alteration of the nursery function in the Seine estuary is related to the loss of nursery habitat and to a lower quality of the residual surfaces. These observations stressed the importance of habitat destruction and de- creased quality of remaining habitat for fish stocks renewal.