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The Natura 2000 network at sea represents more than 40 percent of the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) along the French metropolitan coastline. The governance of this type of MPA is challenging because it is supposed to be a framework based on a participatory approach tailored to the local context, while also adhering to a normative structure defined at the national level by the French Environmental Code. The challenge for coastal managers, therefore, is to build upon this normative framework an adaptative governance approach that takes into account local stakes (ecological, social, and economic). This article questions how institutional bricolage is used to combine adaptive management with a normative procedure. Based on eighteen qualitative case studies along the French metropolitan coastline, we propose a typology of the different governance modes for Natura 2000 at sea. Four types of territorial governance are described, reflecting the ability of institutions to leverage organized proximities in order to develop adaptive governance. Among these ideal types, we emphasize the role of institutional bricolage, which reflects different types of arrangements: within the institution itself, between two institutions, or through the institution and local stakeholders. On this basis, we discuss the power dynamics between normative procedures imposed by the state and the capacities of local territories to engage in an adaptative management process.