Alan Davidson

Bass, Sea Bass

Dicentrarchus labrax (Linnaeus)

Appears in

#93Mediterranean Seafood
Mediterranean Seafood

By Alan Davidson

Published 1981

  • About

Family Moronidae

* Small specimens may be called ispendik, the name of the spotted sea bass (sec next page).

REMARKS Maximum length 100 cm. May be found in salt-water lakes and the lower reaches of rivers as well as in the sea. The Romans preferred specimens taken in rivers (’At in lupis, in amne capti praeferuntur’, wrote Pliny), but nowadays those taken in the sea are better. The basic colour is silver, with a darker back and a white belly.