| Family |
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Serranidae
Species (popular name): Sea bass
(scientific name): Dicentrarchus labrax (L)
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| Name in the main European languages |
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I: Spigola o Branzino
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F: Bar
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E: Lubina |
D: Seebarsch
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| Max. size |
Kg: 12
cm: 100 |
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| Period of reproduction |
| Winter – from December to March |
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| Description |
| A large size fish, it has a slender, thin body. Its overall colouring is silver-grey with greenish back and white stomach. The gill cover shows a dark blotch with two strong rear thorns. It has a big mouth, provided with numerous small hooked teeth distributed on the jaws, the vomer and the palate; it is in fact a highly voracious predator and feeds mainly on fish and crustaceans, but also on molluscs and worms. Its lower jaw is slightly prominent. |
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| Biologia |
| A rustic fish, excellent eurythermal and euryhaline, is highly resistant to hot, cold and to salinity variations. As an adult lives in coastal sea waters and here it reproduces by laying over 100,000 eggs per kg of live weight. The eggs, small and transparent, float. At a temperature of 13°C they rapidly hatch in about 3 days. Young specimens then enter lagoons and river mouths, where they grow until their sexual maturity, which male reach on their second year and females on their third year. |
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| Fishing |
| Present all around the Mediterranean Sea, it is traditionally and extensively reared in lagoons, in the fishing valleys of the Northern Adriatic Sea and in coastal brackish ponds, and it proves to be an important economical source. It is caught with set nets and through the "lavorieri": stable fishing plants provided with V-shaped traps, ending with a trap net. Its flesh is delicate, firm and compact and makes the pike highly appreciated everywhere. |
| Acquaculture |
| For a few years now intensive all-round breeding has been successfully practiced in a number of inland (in pools) and seaside (in floating cages) plants. It has become in fact one of the most widely reared marine ichthyic species, moving up to the most ten bought fishing products in Italy. The national production in 2001 was …… tons. |
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| Curiosity |
| The sea brass once used to go upstream along the River Tevere seeking preys; the Romans particularly appreciated river specimens, called "wool wolves" after their voracity and their delicate flesh ("incredibly tender and soft like wool fleece", Plinius stated). |
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