The west coast seabream or west coast steenbras (''Lithognathus aureti'') is a species of marine

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the family

Sparidae The Sparidae are a family of fish in the order Perciformes, commonly called sea breams and porgies. The sheepshead, scup, and red seabream are species in this family. Most sparids are deep-bodied compressed fish with a small mouth separated by a ...

. It is found in very shallow water off the coasts of to Angola, Namibia and South Africa. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

lists its conservation status as being "

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

Description

The west coast seabream is a deep-bodied fish that can grow to a length of about . The maximum recorded weight is . The head is shorter than its depth, and the profile is slightly convex above the eye. There are no scales on the snout and the upper jaw is protusible. The teeth are small, with a single outer row of pointed teeth and two inner rows of small molars. The dorsal fin has eleven spines and nine to ten soft rays, and the anal fin has three spines and eight to nine soft rays. The pectoral fin is longer than the head and has fifteen to sixteen soft rays. The colour is silvery-grey with about seven faint, vertical bars which are more visible in young fish. This species could be confused with the

sand steenbras The sand steenbras or striped seabream (''Lithognathus mormyrus'') is a species of marine fish in the family Sparidae. It is found in shallow water in the Mediterranean Sea and in the eastern Atlantic Ocean from France to South Africa. It also oc ...

(''Lithognathus mormyrus''), but that has a shallower body, more rays in its dorsal and anal fins, and ten to fourteen dark bars. The

white steenbras The white steenbras (''Lithognathus lithognathus'') is a species of fish in the family Sparidae endemic to South Africa. Due to overfishing, primarily by seine netting operations in False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans ''Valsbaai'') is a body ...

(''Lithognathus lithognathus'') is also similar, but has a longer head and more slender body.

Distribution and habitat

Endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the coast of southwestern Africa, the west coast seabream's range extends from Rio Longa, in Angola, to Cape Town, South Africa, but it is uncommon outside Namibian waters. It occurs in two separate populations; one in the northern and central part of Namibia and one around Meob Bay in the south. It lives close inshore in the surf zone, usually at depths of less than over sandy seabeds.

Ecology

The west coast seabream feeds on invertebrates on the seabed such as

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

polychaete worms Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine annelid worms, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are m ...

and

bivalve molluscs Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, bival ...

. This fish is a

protandric hermaphrodite In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have separ ...

. This means it starts its adult life as a male and later changes its sex to female. As a male, the average age to reach maturity is about 4.8 years for northern populations and about 6 years for southern ones. As a female, the average ages are 7.2 and 9.7 respectively. The eggs are spawned in the surf zone and tend to drift northwards with the sea current.

Status

The northern population of west coast seabream is a popular fish with rock-and-surf sea anglers, and the southern population is sometimes the target of commercial line-fishing. The total population is declining and because of its slow growth rate and longevity, this fish is susceptible to over-fishing. Because of this, the

has listed its conservation status as being "

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1919285 west coast seabream Fish of Namibia Marine fauna of Southern Africa Taxa named by J. L. B. Smith west coast seabream