The black sea bass (''Centropristis striata'') is a species of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

, a sea bass from the subfamily Serraninae which is part of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Serranidae The Serranidae are a large family of fishes belonging to the order Perciformes. The family contains about 450 species in 65 genera, including the sea basses and the groupers (subfamily Epinephelinae). Although many species are small, in some ca ...

, which also includes the

grouper Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" is ...

s and

anthias Anthias are members of the family Serranidae and make up the subfamily Anthiinae. Anthias make up a sizeable portion of the population of pink, orange, and yellow reef fishes seen swarming in most coral reef photography and film. The name Anthi ...

. It is found in the western Atlantic Ocean, where it is an important species for commercial and recreational fisheries.

Description

The black sea bass has an oblong, laterally compressed body. It has a large mouth, armed with bands of teeth on the jaw and with a triangular patch of teeth in the front part roof of the mouth and more teeth along the sides of that area, the mouth extending as far as below the middle of the eye. The

preopercle The operculum is a series of bones found in bony fish and chimaeras that serves as a facial support structure and a protective covering for the gills; it is also used for respiration and feeding. Anatomy The opercular series contains four bon ...

has fine serrations on its margin and is evenly rounded, while the gill cover bears three flat spines. The

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through c ...

has ten spines, the front spines being longer than the rearmost, and 11

soft rays Fish anatomy is the study of the form or morphology of fish. It can be contrasted with fish physiology, which is the study of how the component parts of fish function together in the living fish. In practice, fish anatomy and fish physiology co ...

. The membranes between the spines of the dorsal fin are deeply notched. The anal fin has three spines and seven soft rays. The

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

has three lobes created by the long and pointed upper, middle and lower rays. The colour pattern is normally smoky grey, dusky brown or blue-black on the back and upper body, fading towards the underside. In the middle of each scale there is a pale blue to white spot and these form longitudinal stripes along the back and flanks. The dorsal fin has a series of white spots and bands along its length. The flanks can frequently appear mottled or have dark and light vertical barring. In the breeding season the males develop bright fluorescent blue and green around the eyes and nape and a hump on the head contrasting with the paler and duller females which are brownish or blue-grey in colour. The juveniles are found in four colour phases; the first is an overall light grey phase which has small dark spots, there is a dark phase which has pale white spots, a striped phase with a longitudinal dark stripe and a barred phase which has six vertical bars. This species attains a maximum

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

of , however they are normally found at a total length of around , and a maximum published weight of .

Distribution

The black sea bass is found in the western Atlantic Ocean from

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

south along the eastern coast of North America as far as the Florida Keys and into the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

as far as

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

where the western limit is just to the west of the Mississippi Delta.

Habitat and biology

The black sea bass is commonly found in the vicinity of rock jetties and over rocky substrates in shallow water, although they have also been recorded in deeper, offshore waters to depths of . They spend most of their time near the bottom where they frequently aggregate around features on the bottom such as piles of rocks, wrecks and man-made structures. It is often encountered resting in either a head-down or head-up position. Normally the dorsal fin is folded down but will be raised and spread out as an aggressive signal to other members of its own species. The juveniles remain in the protected estuarine waters where they are found around man-made structures, wrecks and over shell substrates. This species is a slow growing fish and they reach sexual maturity at between one and three years old. They are

protogynous hermaphrodite Sequential hermaphroditism (called dichogamy in botany) is a type of hermaphroditism that occurs in many fish, gastropods, and plants. Sequential hermaphroditism occurs when the individual changes its sex at some point in its life. In particular, ...

s, the majority of them begin life as females and then change to males. The stimulus for the change is not known but it is thought that the largest females change sex in response to a shortage of males within a

spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquat ...

group. These fishes spawn from January to July with the smaller females producing as few as 30,000 eggs while the larger females can produce 500,000 eggs. Their eggs are

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or w ...

and have a diameter of 0.9-1.0mm. They hatch 75 hours after laying, in water temperatures of . The larvae are pelagic until they grow to around in length when they change to a demersal or estuarine habit. They are a predatory species with a rather catholic diet which includes crabs, shrimps, barnacles, worms,

tunicate A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata (). It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time ...

s, small fish and bivalves. They are also preyed on by larger fish and their known predators include monkfish (''

Lophius americanus ''Lophius americanus'' is a goosefish in the family Lophiidae, also called all-mouth, American anglerfish, bellows-fish, devil-fish, headfish, molligut, satchel-mouth, or wide-gape. It is native to the eastern coast of North America. Descr ...

''), spotted hake ('' Urophycis regia''), summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus), striped bass (''Morone saxatilis''),

bluefish The bluefish (''Pomatomus saltatrix'') is the only extant species of the family Pomatomidae. It is a marine pelagic fish found around the world in temperate and subtropical waters, except for the northern Pacific Ocean. Bluefish are known as ta ...

(''Pomatomus saltatrix''),

weakfish The weakfish, ''Cynoscion regalis'', is a marine fish of the drum family Sciaenidae. A medium-large, slender, marine fish, it is found along the east coast of North America. The head and back of this fish are dark brown in color with a greenish ...

(''Cynoscion regalis''),

little skate The little skate (''Leucoraja erinacea'') is a species of skate in the family Rajidae, found from Nova Scotia to North Carolina on sand or gravel habitats. They are one of the dominant members of the demersal fish community in the northwestern ...

(''Leucoraja erinacea''),

spiny dogfish The spiny dogfish (''Squalus acanthias''), spurdog, mud shark, or piked dogfish is one of the best known species of the Squalidae (dogfish) family of sharks, which is part of the Squaliformes order. While these common names may apply to several ...

(''Squalus acanthias''), bignose shark (''Carcharhinus altimus'') and dusky shark (''Carcharhinus obscurus''). Females live to around 8 years of age while males can live to 12 years old.

Taxonomy

The black sea bass was first formally described as ''Labrus striatus'' by

Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, th ...

in the tenth edition of his '' Systema Naturae'' published in 1758, Linnaeus gave the type locality as America. When the French anatomist and zoologist Georges Cuvier created the genus '' Centropristis'' he used Bloch and Schneider's 1801 ''Coryphaenus nigrescens'' as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

for the new genus, this is a synonym of Linnaeus's ''Labrus striatus'' so the black sea bass is the type species of the genus ''Centropristis''. The generic name is a compound of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

words ''kentron'' meaning "a saw" and ''pristis'' which means "sting".

Utilisation

Black sea bass are highly sought after by recreational and commercial fisherman, There are two populations identified for fisheries management. NOAA Fisheries, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission cooperate in the management of the black sea bass fishery in the seas north of

Cape Hatteras Cape Hatteras is a cape located at a pronounced bend in Hatteras Island, one of the barrier islands of North Carolina. Long stretches of beach, sand dunes, marshes, and maritime forests create a unique environment where wind and waves shap ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

while NOAA Fisheries and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council manage the fishery south of Cape Hatteras. Management includes catch limits, permits and a close season. This species has lean, white flesh which has a relatively firm texture, breaks into small flakes and has a delicate flavour. These small size of most of the fish available means that they are often cooked whole. Thare are caught using

otter trawl Bottom trawling is trawling (towing a trawl, which is a fishing net) along the seafloor. It is also referred to as "dragging". The scientific community divides bottom trawling into benthic trawling and demersal trawling. Benthic trawling is towin ...

s, hook and line and in pots or traps. They have shown some promise in aquaculture but have not been farmed commercially yet.. In sheltered environments the black sea bass can attain a high growth rate but this does not lead to long-term survival of their populations. File:Miking a black sea bass for eggs.jpg, File:Juvenile black sea bass.jpg, File:Black sea bass at Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary in Georgia.jpg,

References

* * McClane, A. J. (1978). McClane's Field Guide to Saltwater Fishes of North America.

External links

Black Sea Bass – South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

Black Sea Bass – North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries

Black Sea Bass – South Atlantic Fishery Management Council

Black Sea Bass – Chefs of Carolina

Black Sea Bass – Chefs Resources

Black Sea Bass – Food Choice
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2469966

black sea bass The black sea bass (''Centropristis striata'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a sea bass from the subfamily Serraninae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the groupers and anthias. It is found in the weste ...

Commercial fish Fauna of the Southeastern United States Fish of the Eastern United States