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Spotted seabass: the European seabass's little brother that keeps its spots for life

It looks like a European seabass that forgot to shed its juvenile spots: the spotted seabass, *Dicentrarchus punctatus* — in German Gefleckter Wolfsbarsch, in Spanish baila, in Italian spigola maculata or spigola puntata, in French bar tacheté or bar moucheté, in Portuguese robalo-baila, in Dutch gevlekte zeebaars, in Danish plettet havbars, in Swedish fläckig havsabborre, in Finnish täpläbassi, in Russian пятнистый лаврак, in Turkish benekli levrek, in Greek στικτό λαβράκι and in Albanian levreku pikalosh (all GBIF), in Arabic شبص مرقط (Wikidata). For Norwegian, Croatian, Slovenian and Japanese we found no confirmed species name in GBIF or Wikidata. Here's how to tell it apart from the common European seabass, where it lives, what it eats, when it spawns — and why the sources disagree so widely on its range and depth, of all things.

The European seabass's little brother

It was described by Marcus Elieser Bloch in 1792, back then as *Sciaena punctata* (English and French Wikipedia). It belongs to the temperate bass family (Moronidae), and its genus *Dicentrarchus* — “two-spined perch”, according to German Wikipedia — has exactly two species according to English Wikipedia: this one and the European seabass *Dicentrarchus labrax*, which Mediterranean anglers know as Spigola, Lubina or Lavraki. According to FishBase it is harmless to humans, and FishBase explicitly lists it as a game fish.

How to recognise it — and tell it from the European seabass

  • The spots: black spots on the back and flanks, which according to French Wikipedia it keeps even as an adult; according to English Wikipedia only adults carry them. The base colour is silvery grey, the back bluish in life (English Wikipedia).
  • The gill cover: a large black spot on the edge of the gill cover (German, English, French and Italian Wikipedia).
  • The eyes: larger in relation to the head than in the European seabass (German, French and Italian Wikipedia).
  • The mouth: upturned, with a protruding lower jaw (German and French Wikipedia).
  • The body: according to Italian Wikipedia stockier than the European seabass, with two dorsal fins, the first with spiny rays.
  • The size: usually around 30 cm, at most around 70 cm (FishBase, German and English Wikipedia) — exactly how big is disputed by the sources, see below.
  • Careful with small fish: According to Italian Wikipedia, young European seabass up to 10–15 cm also have dark spots, though usually less distinct. So a small spotted bass isn't automatically a spotted seabass — check the gill-cover spot, the eyes and the mouth.

Where it lives — coast, lagoon, estuary

It's a fish of the coast. FishBase describes it as a species of inshore marine and brackish waters over sand, muddy sand and rock, occasionally also in rivers; German Wikipedia finds no clear preference for any particular bottom. Remarkably, according to FishBase and Italian Wikipedia it also tolerates hypersaline water — FishBase gives the Sine-Saloum Delta in Senegal as an example. Italian Wikipedia calls it even more coastal than the European seabass.

Its range is the Eastern Atlantic, according to FishBase from Europe and Morocco to Senegal and the Canary Islands, plus the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Suez; German Wikipedia calls it a recent immigrant in the Red Sea. In the Mediterranean it lives mainly in the south according to FishBase, mostly along the southern coasts according to French Wikipedia — and according to French Wikipedia, in the Alboran Sea, where its range meets that of the European seabass, there are also hybrids of the two species.

What it eats

According to English Wikipedia it is almost exclusively carnivorous. FishBase names mainly shrimps and molluscs, plus fish; German Wikipedia adds crabs, while French and Italian Wikipedia speak of crustaceans, molluscs and small fish. FishBase gives it a trophic level of 3.9 — a predator, then, that forages near the bottom rather than hunting in open water.

Spawning and maturity

It spawns in winter along the coast (French and Italian Wikipedia). English Wikipedia is more precise: in the Mediterranean from January to March, in the English Channel and further north from March to May. According to FishBase it reaches sexual maturity at a length of about 21.6 cm. If you hook a ripe spotted seabass in winter, a careful release does it a favour — that's not a regulation, it's our recommendation.

On the hook and on the plate

According to German Wikipedia it is not a main target of commercial fishing, but it is specifically targeted by anglers; English Wikipedia calls it a popular game fish in the eastern central Atlantic. According to English Wikipedia it is caught with bottom trawls, beach seines, trammel nets and hook and line, according to Italian Wikipedia with the same methods as the European seabass — set nets and lines with natural or artificial baits. According to English and Italian Wikipedia its flesh is considered very tasty; according to English and Italian Wikipedia it is also kept in aquaculture. FishBase mentions a minor commercial fishery and a medium price category.

Status — and what you can do

On the IUCN Red List, the spotted seabass is listed as Least Concern. But the picture isn't entirely free of worries: according to Italian Wikipedia it is heavily fished in parts of its range, with local overfishing, and suffers from habitat destruction and pollution. FishBase rates its vulnerability to fishing as moderate (36 out of 100), but its vulnerability to climate change as high to very high (74 out of 100).

For you on the water, this means: whether a minimum size or a catch limit applies to it is set by the national and regional regulations of each country — there's no universally valid figure, and we deliberately don't give one here. Check locally what applies; the minimum size for the European seabass can't simply be carried over.

Five contradictions in the sources

  • How big does it get? FishBase, German and English Wikipedia: at most around 70 cm. French Wikipedia: at most 60 cm and 2 kg. Italian Wikipedia: at most half a metre and 3 kg — so shorter, but heavier than in the French version.
  • How deep does it live? FishBase gives the depth as “30 – ? m”, i.e. from 30 m downwards with no lower limit. Italian Wikipedia says the opposite: 30 m at most. English Wikipedia writes “generally below about 30 m” — which can be read either way. For a fish of lagoons and estuaries, a lot speaks for the shallow reading, but it isn't certain.
  • How common is it in the Mediterranean? English Wikipedia: throughout the entire Mediterranean. FishBase: in the southern Mediterranean. French Wikipedia: mostly along the southern coasts, but common along the whole Italian coast except the northern Adriatic. Italian Wikipedia: more common along the African coasts and generally rare in the basin.
  • Where does its range end? In the north: according to FishBase occasionally in the English Channel, according to German Wikipedia up to about the Bay of Biscay and rarely in the Channel, according to English Wikipedia up to Brittany, according to Italian Wikipedia up to Jersey and Guernsey. In the west, only English Wikipedia mentions the Azores, only Italian Wikipedia Cape Verde.
  • When was it assessed? FishBase: IUCN assessment on 14 July 2014. English Wikipedia: 2015. This doesn't change the result — Least Concern.

Three name traps

  • “Spigola”, “Robalo” and “sea bass” on their own usually mean the other one. GBIF does list these names for our fish too, but they primarily stand for the European seabass. Only the addition makes it unambiguous — maculata, puntata, baila, spotted — or the scientific name.
  • “Truite de mer” is not a bass. GBIF also lists truite de mer for it in French, and French Wikipedia says it's called that regionally. But this word normally refers to the sea trout — a salmonid.
  • Not every name list is right. The GBIF list for *Dicentrarchus punctatus* also contains entries like “Three bar porcupinefish” — a porcupinefish name that has nothing to do with our bass. If you take names from databases, check them against a second source; only the scientific name makes things unambiguous.

That leaves the question every article in this series starts with: when. For a fish that moves between lagoon, estuary and open coast, that's no side issue. Habitat, prey and spawning season are covered above, and they're fixed. What changes every day are the conditions on your water — and whether a day at the estuary is worth it is decided right there. StrikeAhead calculates that and tells you when the trip is worth it. And because you don't know an unfamiliar spot, its edges and its rules from day one, StrikeAhead Pathfinder tells you who to go out with: curated guides and skippers, personally vetted before listing — licence and insurance —, with verified catches instead of promo photos, no paid ranking and no booking fee for you as an angler. The app says when, Pathfinder with whom.