The gilt-head bream (''Sparus aurata''), also known as the gilthead, dourade, gilt-head seabream or silver seabream, is a species of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Sparidae Sparidae is a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Spariformes, the seabreams and porgies, although they were traditionally classified in the order Perciformes. The over 150 species are found in shallow and deep marine waters in t ...

, the seabreams or porgies. This fish is found in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It is a highly esteemed food fish and an important species in aquaculture.

Taxonomy

The gilt-head bream was first formally described in 1758 by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' with its type locality given as the Mediterranean and Venezuela (although this has now been shown to be a specimen of ''

Calamus Calamus may refer to: Botany and zoology * ''Calamus'' (fish), a genus of fish in the family Sparidae * ''Calamus'' (palm), a genus of rattan palms * Calamus, the hollow shaft of a feather, also known as the quill * ''Acorus calamus'', the swee ...

''). It is the only species in the

monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

''Sparus''. The genus ''Sparus'' is placed in the family Sparidae within the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Spariformes Spariformes is an order of ray-finned fishes consisting of six families within the series Percomorpha. Taxonomy Spariformes was first used as a taxonomic term in 1860 by the Dutch physician, herpetologist and ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker. Trad ...

by the 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

''. Some authorities classify this genus in the subfamily Sparinae, but the 5th edition of ''Fishes of the World'' does not recognise subfamilies within the Sparidae.

Etymology

The gilt-head bream has the genus name ''Sparus'' which derives from ''sparos'' and

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

name for this species. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''aurata'', means "gold", an allusion to the gold band on the intraorbital part of the head.

Distribution and habitat

The gilt-head bream is found in the northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean from Great Britain and Ireland to possibly as far south as Senegal, including the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

. It is found around Madeira but these are escapes from

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

. It also occurs throughout the Mediterranean and in the southern and western parts of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

. This species is found over sandy substrates and in

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine (ocean), marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four Family (biology), families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and ...

beds at depths between , with adults in deeper waters than juveniles, the young fish typically going no deeper than . It is a euryhaline species that will enter brackish waters.

Description

The gilt-head bream has a deep body, with a large, deep head which has its relatively small eyes placed high on the head. The diameter of the eyes is shorter than the length of the snout. The cheeks are deep and covered in scales but the

preoperculum This glossary of ichthyology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in ichthyology, the study of fishes. A B C ...

has no scales, although the operculum is scaled. It has a long-based

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

which is supported by 11 robust spines and 13 or 14 branched soft rays. The

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

is short based and is held up by three spines and 11 or 12 branched soft rays. It has large and robust teeth in the jaws with four to six large, pointed canine-like teeth in the front the jaws with 2 to 4 rows of blunt, round teeth laterally. It has a blue-grey back, the sides are silvery with a large dark spot behind the eye, it is red along the margin of the operculum and there is a golden bar on the head between the eyes. This species has a maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

of , although a standard length of is more typical, and a maximum published weight of .

Biology

The gilt-head bream feeds mainly on

shellfish Shellfish, in colloquial and fisheries usage, are exoskeleton-bearing Aquatic animal, aquatic invertebrates used as Human food, food, including various species of Mollusca, molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish ...

, but also some plant material. Gilt-head bream are protandrous sequential hermaphrodites, maturing as males by age 2, before some develop ovaries and lose their testes in later life. The genome of the species was released in 2018, where the authors detected fast evolution of ovary-biased genes likely resulting from the peculiar reproduction mode of the species.

Fisheries and aquaculture

Gilthead seabream total production thousand tonnes 1960-2022

Gilthead seabream is an esteemed food fish, but catches of wild fish have been relatively modest, between in 2000–2009, primarily from the Mediterranean. In addition, gilthead seabream have traditionally been cultured extensively in coastal lagoons and saltwater ponds. However, intensive rearing systems were developed during the 1980s, and gilthead seabream has become an important

species, primarily in the Mediterranean area and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. Reported production was negligible until the late 1980s, but reached in 2010, thus dwarfing the capture fisheries production. Turkey is the biggest seabream producer in the world, followed by Greece. One of the biggest challenges facing the sea bream aquaculture industry is the frequency of skeletal abnormalities. This is caused by factors such as high stocking density during larval rearing. Gilthead seabreams in aquaculture are susceptible to parasitic infections, including from '' Enterospora nucleophila''.

Culinary use

The gilt-head bream is considered to be the most esteemed seabream for culinary purposes, especially in Southern Europe where the mild and sweet flavour of the flesh, which breaks into small flakes, is popular.

References

* Alan Davidson, ''Mediterranean Seafood'',

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

, 1972. , pp. 86–108.

External links

* * {{Authority control

gilt-head bream The gilt-head bream (''Sparus aurata''), also known as the gilthead, dourade, gilt-head seabream or silver seabream, is a species of marine Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish belonging to the Family (biology), family Sparidae, the seabreams or porg ...

Commercial fish Fish of Europe Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of the North Sea

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