It is concluded that the size at first maturity revealed that mature females in the South of Moroccan Atlantic Ocean were smaller than males for the round Sardinella and the opposite was observed for the flat Sardinella. The spawning of S. aurita presented a pick in April and for S. maderensis in July. As a shared stock these findings will be used for stock assessment in the North West Africa area.

Morocco is one of the four regions in the world known for the richness of its fish resources in its coasts (through upwelling). The upwelling phenomenon is the origin of high biological productivity of the regions which results in a strong richness of the pelagic resources (sardines, anchovies, mackerel, etc.). These species were defined as fish living in the sea between the surface and 200 meters deep and characterized by significant horizontal and vertical migration in coastal waters [1]. They make up the largest share of global marine catch and they represent quantitatively the main exploited resources, and account for almost 80 % of catches [2,3]. The socioeconomic importance of sea fishing requires managers to strengthen the biological studies necessary for the evaluation of these resources in order to allow fishermen to make the most of natural stands on one hand, and to safeguard stocks by appropriate regulatory measures on the other hand. The anchovies Engraulis encrasicolus Linnaeus, 1758 are an essential element of food chain [4]. Little is known about the biology of this species in the Atlantic waters of Morocco. It is generally admitted the existence of one unique stock for North West Africa, which extends from Morocco to Sierra Leona. Nowadays, the occurrence of different modal classes detected in acoustic surveys carried out in Moroccan and Mauritanian waters raises out the possibility of the existence of different stocks [5]. Most of the research on the ecology of this species was performed in the northern Mediterranean Sea [6][7][8][9], the Black Sea and the Azov Sea [10][11][12], the Adriatic Sea [13,14] or the Bay of Biscay [15][16][17][18]. Despite the significant economic importance of this species along the North African Atlantic coast, little information is known either on its ecology or biology. Populations of small pelagic fish, such as sardine and anchovy, show evidence of important natural fluctuations in their abundance [19,20]. These fluctuations seem to be related, among other factors, to climate variability [21] or habitat conditions [9]. Growth and reproduction are two important parameters in fish population dynamics. Therefore, the present paper is focused on the study of E. encrasicolus reproduction and growth; particularly sex-ratio, gonado-somatic index, condition factor and the size at first maturity were studied. Maarif, B.P. 5366, Casablanca, Morocco. 3 National Fisheries Research Institute, Sidi Abderrahmane Road, Equestrian Club Ould Jmel, B.P. 20050, Casablanca, Morocco Abstract A study on the sexual cycle, of the European anchovy, the pelagic fish, Engraulis encrasicolus (Clupeiformes, Engraulidae), was carried out in the Central Atlantic Moroccan coast in the period between January 2013 and December 2013. This work represents the first attempt to investigate the reproductive features of the E. encrasicolus population in this area. The sex ratio for all fish (1:1.32) was in favour of females. The macroscopic examination of the gonads showed that this specie is matu...

Background In Morocco, fish is an important protein source especially, even not exclusively, for coastal communities and marketed fresh all along the coastline. One of the main targets of coastal artisanal fisheries is the European conger (Conger conger, Linnaeus 1758), a widely distributed benthic predatory species of a maximum weight of up to 50 kg. However, information on heavy metal contamination of conger is scarce. Therefore, concentrations of mercury, lead and cadmium were analysed in 108 European conger specimens from nine locations along the along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Morocco to describe the spatial distribution of heavy metal contamination. Results The average heavy metal concentration in all conger samples under investigation was 246.90 ± 216.83 µg mercury/kg wet mass, 74.14 ± 87.02 µg lead/kg wet mass and 255.12 ± 287.15 µg cadmium/kg wet mass respectively. Mercury and cadmium showed a clear site-specific bioaccumulation in European conger but lead does not. Hence, the effect of fish length bias on contamination was corrected through a generalized linear model (GLM) prior to any spatial comparison. Conclusions Different regional hotspots for the three analysed metals are identified and local sources are discussed. Mercury levels in big specimens of European conger exceeded the European threshold level for human consumption at some of the locations under investigation.

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