Living close to shores and estuaries rich in micro-organisms, the European seabass has long been reared in traditional aquaculture. Fish were allowed to enter lagoons or fitted tanks (often saline), after which the entrance was closed off, trapping them inside. This is the principle of Italian valliculture and ofesterosin southern Spain, which are still operational today. The trapped seabass fed naturally until they were harvested, which presented a drawback: their voracious appetites often put a real strain on the lagoon’s ecosystem. In some places, immature fish caught by local fishermen were used to populate tanks. In the 1960s, however, the growing scarcity of young fish and the example of salmon farming in northern Europe led Mediterranean scientists to develop an intensive rearing process based on a complex hatchery technique and the production of specific feeds.
Latin name : Dicentrarchus labrax
Taxonomic Code: 1700634503
Production (EU-27) – 57 893 t (2007); 92 % of global production.
Value (UE-27) – EUR 304 million (2007).
Main EU producer countries – Greece, Spain, Italy, France.
Main producer countries worldwide – Greece, Turkey, Spain, Italy, France, Croatia.
Local Names
ALBANIA : Lvreku
BULGARIA : Labrak, Lavrak
DENMARK : Bars
EGYPT : Karus
FINLAND : Meribassi
FRANCE : Bar, Bar commun, Bar européen, Bog, Brigue, Drelique, Gutgareo, Loubas negre, Loubine, Loup, Loupassou, Lubin, Luvassu, Pigne
GERMANY : Gemeiner seebarsch, Gemeiner wolfsbarsch, Meerbarsch, Salmbarsch, Seawolf, Seabarsch, Wolfsbarsch
GREECE : Lavráki
IRELAND : An bhas, Bass, Doingean
ICELAND : Vartari
ISRAEL : Lavraq
ITALY : Baicolo, Brancino, Perchia, Persicospigola, Spigola
JAPAN : Hata
LEBANON : Birrâq, Ghimbâr
MALTA : Lupu, Spigola, Spina, Sponotta
NETHERLANDS : Zeebaars
NORWAY : Havabbor, Havâbor, Havaborre
POLAND : Labraks
PORTUGAL : Robalo, Robalo-legitimo
ROMANIA : Lavrac, Lup-de-mare
RUSSIA : Lavrak
SLOVENIA : Brancin, Luben
SPAIN : Baieta, Baila, Llobarro, Llobina, Llop, Llubina, Lubina, Robaliza, Robalo
SWEDEN : Havsaborre
TUNISIA : Qarous
TURKEY : Levrek balığı, Çizgili mercan
UKRAINE : Lavraki
UNITED KINGDOM : Bass, Capemouth, Common bass, European bass, King of the mullets, Sea dace, Sea perch, White mullet, White salmon
UNITED STATES : European bass, White salmon
YUGOSLAVIA : Kanjci, Kirnje, Lubin, Smudut
Diagnostic Features
Body rather elongate. Opercle with 2 flat spines; preopercle with large, forward-directed spines on its lower margin. Mouth terminal, moderately protractile.
Vomerine teeth in a crescentic band, without a backward extension on midline of roof of mouth. Two separate dorsal fins; the first with 8 to 10 spines; the second with 1 spine and 12 or 13 soft rays. Anal fin with 3 spines and 10 to 12 soft rays. Scales small; lateral line complete with 62 to 74 (mode 70), but not extending onto caudal fin. Caudal fin moderately forked. Color silvery grey to bluish on the back, silvery on the sides, belly sometimes tinged with yellow. Young with some dark spots on upper part of body but adults never spotted. A diffuse spot on the edge of opercle.
Habitat and Biology
Demersal behavior, inhabits coastal waters down to about 100 m depth, but more common in shallow waters, on various kinds of bottoms; often entering estuaries and sometimes ascending rivers.Young fish form school, but adults appear to be less gregarious.
Reproduction in January to March in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, March to June in British Isles. A voracious predator, feeding on small shoaling fish and a wide range of invertebrates including shrimps, prawns, crabs, squids and mollusks.
Market And Trade
One of the largest success stories in European aquaculture has been the Mediterranean seabass industry, which in less than 15 years grew from a few thousand tones to 57,000 tones today, having peaked at nearly 71,000 tones in 2000. When farmed bass started getting to market in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the farmed quality was seen to complement the wild species and prices were very high. Prices of the wild product may have suffered initially, as the volumes from aquaculture continued growing, but today there is clear distinction in the market between wild and farmed product, with the prices for wild bass several times higher than those of the farmed fish.
Compared to many other species of farmed fish, such as salmon or trout, seabass has so far been mainly marketed whole and fresh, with only limited volumes undergoing any form of processing or value-addition. In any case, product development in the bass sector has been very limited. One major reason is the conservatism of Mediterranean consumers, who are used to seeing the fish whole when sold retail, despite the fact that the fish certainly would have been better if they had been gutted at source.
Some product development is now under way, both among the larger Greek producers and by specialized Italian fish processors who import Greek product and then repack it in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), giving the product a longer shelf-life. However, more product development is certainly necessary if additional quantities of bass are to be absorbed in the current markets. Likewise, product penetration in Northern Europe is still very limited: it is based on ethnic restaurants (Greek, Turkish, and Spanish) but spurred by the growing popularity of the Mediterranean cuisine and diet.
Status and trends
In Europe, the seabass industry has grown strongly in the last decade. Production is mostly exported, mainly to Italy and Spain. The main exporter was Greece, with about 70 percent of domestic production exported. Italy was originally almost the only export market for Greek production but, as a result of market development efforts, its exports have now expanded into new markets, such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France, as well as Spain for certain sizes. At the opposite end of the scale, the trade in fingerlings comes from Italy, Spain and France and goes to farms in Greece, Malta and Croatia. As the output of seabass has grown costs were driven down, and market prices declined by more than two-thirds between 1990 and 2002 (from USD 16/kg to about USD 4-5/kg. The rapid saturation of the market and the parallel rapid price decline (60-70 percent in ten years) are attributed to the much smaller traditional market for these species (mainly in southern Europe) compared with the Atlantic salmon market, the lack of diversified products, and limited market development and promotion. The substantial drop in prices of these species is, however, opening new markets and expanding existing ones, although acceptable profit margins at the production can only be sustained through further improvements in productivity and product diversification. Over-production in some countries has been a contributing factor in the decline in prices (supply exceeding demand), which has in turn probably been responsible for the general fall in total production of this species between 2000 and 2002.
Main issues
As in other animal production sectors, antibiotics are used in aquaculture, during both production and processing, mainly to prevent (prophylactic use) and treat (therapeutic use) bacterial diseases. Antibiotics have not always been used in a responsible manner in aquaculture and, in a number of reported situations, control of the use of antibiotics has not provided an adequate assurance of the prevention of risk to humans.
The consumption of antibiotics is leading to the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria that are pathogenic to humans. The development of antibiotic resistance by pathogenic bacteria is considered to be one of the most serious risks to human health at the global level.
Recognition of the risks associated with the direct and indirect effects on human health of both active and passive consumption of antibiotics has led to bans on the use of certain antibiotics in animal food production (particularly those antibiotics for which no safe residue levels can be determined) and to the establishment of maximum residue limits (MRLs) for those with known risks.
Many governments around the world have introduced, changed or tightened national regulations on the use of antibiotics, in general and within the aquaculture sector.
FAO. © 2006-2011. Aquaculture topics and activities. Aquaculture. In: FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department [online]. Rome. Updated 18 July 2011. [Cited 12 September 2011]. http://www.fao.org/fishery/aquaculture/en
http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/marine_species/farmed_fish_and_shellfish/seabass/index_en.htm