Samenvatting

The seeding of mussel seeds is an important factor within the mussel culture as losses can be as high as 75% within the first 4 weeks after seeding. Therefore it is important to get more knowledge about the factors that can cause mortality within the first weeks after seeding. With seeding high local densities arise. It is important to gain more knowledge about what happens within these higher densities. Therefore this study focusses on mussel density within a patch scale. The study consisted out of seven repetitive field experiments on a subtidal culture plot in the eastern Scheldt between March 2017 and April 2018. The experimental set-up consisted out of 30 gabions with three replicates of ten different mussel densities. with a four week duration of every experiments. within this experiment the chlorophyll-a levels, water temperature, water turbidity, aggregation, patch complexity, initial growth and
survival where measured. No relation between starting density and aggregation was found but rather influenced by water current. Furthermore the optimal mussel density on a patch scale seemed to be between 7 and 9 kg/m2 as
this was the density in which the highest performance of the mussel was found in relation to growth and survival.