Maximum length 80 cm or even, rarely, up to 1 metre. The back is grey or blue, the flanks silvery and the belly yellowish or white. Living bass seem predominantly bright silver. Young fish may be spotted, but large spotted specimens will belong to the related species Dicentrarchus punctatus (Bloch), the spotted sea bass, which only comes as far north as the southern Bay of Biscay. Dicentrarchus labrax has been plentiful off the south and west coasts of Britain and Ireland, and is taken as far north as Norway. But stocks have suffered from overfishing.
