| Family |
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Porgies
Species (popular name): White sea bream
(scientific name): Diplodus vulgaris (Geoffroy Sait-Hilaire 1817) | | |
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| Name in the main European languages |
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I:Sarago
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F:Sar a tête noire
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E: Sargo mojarra
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D:Zweibindenbrassen
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| Max. size |
Kg: 1
cm: 40 |
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| Period of reproduction |
| Autumn – from September to November |
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| Description |
| A small-medium size fish, it has a long, oval-shaped body, pressed on the sides. It has a dark-olive-coloured back, while its sides are silver-coloured with 7-9 thin vertical golden stripes. A typical black band covers the upper part of its head and goes down to half gill cover; on the tail stalk it shows another black band, a characteristic it shares with other species of sea bream. Its mouth, slightly protractile, is provided with incisors and molar teeth, made to crack the shell of molluscs and crustaceans, which is what the sea brass feeds on. |
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| Biology |
| A marine species, it is common in the Mediterranean Sea and in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It lives on sandy and rocky bottoms down to a 70 m depth. It is gregarious and lives in small shoals. Its eggs are very tiny (1 mm) and transparent and float as they are provided with an oily droplet. The sea bream is an hermaphrodite: after males reach their sexual maturity on their second year, they transform into females. |
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| Fishing |
| Its white flesh, firm and tasty, makes it a product of remarkable economical interest. Professional fishers catch it with trawls, trap nets, set nets or deep-sea boulters. |
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| Curiosity |
| The sea bream was already highly appreciated in the ancient times, as it results also from the images painted on a number of terracotta works from the Magna Graecia. |
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