A study of spat settlement of two mussel species was carried out in Agadir area on the North Atlantic Coast, between Jan 2002 and Jan 2003. The preferred depth of settlement and settlement period of both species were monitored on collectors suspended in offshore at three different depths (1, 5, 10 m). For Perna perna, the effect of season on settlement was consistent, with relatively higher settlement both in spring (286-462 spats.m-1 ) and in summer (406-594 spats.m-1 ). Similar abundances of settlers were found at 1 m and 5 m depth whatever the season, which suggests a homogeneous distribution of settlers of P. perna in the first 5 m of the sea water. For Mytilus galloprovincialis, the settlement was less patchy in time in regard to P. perna (ρ<0.05). Thus, the settlement was continuous from spring to autumn until 10 m depth. The filamentous structures (laces in polypropylene) used in this study are often designed to enhance the amount of settlers, however, the settlement densities of both species were very low. Consequently, the results suggest that larval supply has been the limiting factor in the settlement success, but not the lack of suitable substrates. Moreover, the study area has poor spat falls and seems to be not suitable for collection of mussel spat.

There is a great interest in establishing mussel farming in Dakhla bay. Selection of suitable sites is more meaningful only if a reliable culture method at proposed site is included. We compared two different culture methods, longline and pole, over 1 year (June 2016 to June 2017). Growth indicators for Perna perna (size and weight growth rates, frequency distributions and estimating growth curves) were analysed from seeding to harvest. The results highlighted the influence of culture method on growth rates of mussels (p < 0.05). At harvest, individuals reared on longline presented higher growth rates and consequently reached greater weight and length values than those reared on pole. Mussels reared at the longline grew 73.2 mm and gained 53.5 g W L (live weight) and 3.3 g W t (tissue dry weight) after 12 months of cultivation. However, mussels cultured at the pole gained only 52.3 mm, 26.7 g W L and 1.6 g W t . Aerial exposure of mussels at low tides could explain this reduced performance on pole compared with longline. Size frequency distributions at harvest fitted bimodal distribution in both cultures due to an asymmetric competition among individuals. Effect of density started in both treatments after 7 months of culture when mussels reached 60-70 mm, implying an increment of their food and space requirements. To prevent overcrowding, the initial density should have been reduced through "thinning-out." The longline method exhibited high-performance growth and hence is highly recommended for cultivation of P. perna in Dakhla bay. K E Y W O R D Saerial exposure, crowding conditions, mussel culture, mussel growth, Perna perna, suspended culture, time

Spat supply for mussel farming in Morocco is essentially based on seed capture and collection from natural beds. However, natural irregularity recruitment in exploited areas and encountered difficulties during spat collection operations have led to develop and improve reproduction techniques under controlled conditions in hatcheries. The present study focused on the larvae phase aiming at assessing growth rate varies between different development stages. Trocophore larva stage had a size of 63.25 μm and reached the pedivilegere stage with a size of 272.56 μm in 18 culture days. Length growth was more significant than width growth for both H-batch and T-batch. For instance, larvae grew in terms of length quickly in H-batch than T-batch (11.10± 1.30 and 9.67 ± 1.17 μm day-1), and the same pattern was observed for T-batch larvae. Inversely, the total biomass consumed was higher during T-batch larvae rearing than H-batch ones. In contrast, the effect of feeding on growth was observed more significantly for H-batch larvae (t=7.55, df=23, p<0.001) than T-batch ones (t=4.13, df=23, p<0.001). However, the specific feeding effect was revealed higher for I. galbana for both batches rather than C. calcitrans and T. suecica. However, the larvae growth reduction is linked to the beginning of tissue synthesis.