Spotted sea-bass

About this species

The spotted seabass is a species of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Moronidae, the temperate basses. This species is found in the marine and brackish waters of the coastal eastern Atlantic Ocean from the English Channel to the Canary Islands and Senegal, as well as through the Mediterranean Sea.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Spotted seabass”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

Loading the map

Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 6 records
February: 12 records
March: 13 records
April: 10 records
May: 1,379 records
June: 20 records
July: 45 records
August: 55 records
September: 28 records
October: 50 records
November: 55 records
December: 37 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 14–23 m · Deepest record: 35.5 m

0–10 m: 1 records
10–20 m: 61 records
20–30 m: 8 records
30–40 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 13–29 °C

12–14 °C: 1 records
14–16 °C: 41 records
16–18 °C: 3 records
18–20 °C: 10 records
20–22 °C: 3 records
22–24 °C: 817 records
24–26 °C: 3 records
26–28 °C: 0 records
28–30 °C: 2 records

Photos

(c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) ecovore, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ruben Ciantia, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Vsevolod Rudyi, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Karim Haddad, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Spotted sea-bass, Black-spotted Bass, sea bass, spotted bass, spotted sea-bass, Spotted seabass, Three Bar Porcupinefish

Names in 3 more languages

German: Gefleckter seebarsch, gefleckte Seebarsch, gefleckte Wolfsbarsch
Spanish: baila, Baila, Lubrina Atruchada
French: bar moucheté, bar tachete, Bar tacheté, Loup tigré, Truite de Mer

Other scientific names: Bodianus punctatus, Dicentrarchus orientalis, Labrax orientalis, Labrax punctatus, Labrax schoenleinii, Morone punctata, Morone punctatus, Perca punctata, Perca punctulata, Perca vaila, Sciaena punctata

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
1,671 open-data records from 1792 to 2024.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.