Orata Sparus aurata

Sea bream  is one of the most common and well-known fish in the Mediterranean Sea, we can find it in all Italian rocky or sandy coasts, its habitat is very vast since it often goes also into lagoons, river mouths and brackish waters. In summer it is very easy to meet her by snorkeling, and unlike other Sparids, generally she approaches the beaches frequented by bathers in search of food.Orata Sparus aurata Gilt-head seabream intotheblue.it

The meeting with the man is therefore never accidental the sea bream in fact often approaches the man and the swimmers who with their swimming move the sand, releasing small molluscs or crustaceans which they feed on. In the video, as soon as I entered the water a sea bream came close and as you can see from the not at all suspicious behavior, it almost seems to meet me as soon as my presence is detected.

Distribution and habitat The sea bream is present throughout the Mediterranean basin and in the eastern Atlantic, from the far south of the British Isles to Cape Verde. It is a strictly coastal fish and lives between 5 and 150 m from the coast; it frequents both hard and sandy bottoms, it is particularly widespread on the border between the two substrates. Normally leads a lonely or small group life. It is a very euryhaline species, so much so that it can frequently be found in lagoons and estuaries, but it is extremely sensitive to low temperatures. It is very common in the Italian seas.

Description It is distinguished by having the profile of the head very convex and the jaw slightly shorter than the upper jaw. On the front of each jaw there are 4-6 large canine teeth, followed by 3-5 sets of upper and 3-4 lower molariform teeth. The body is oval high and depressed. The dorsal fin is unique with 11 spiny rays and 12-13 soft. The scales on the muzzle, on the preorbital and on the interorbital are absent. The lateral line includes 75-85 scales. The back is bluish gray and the silver sides with thin longitudinal gray lines. A black and a golden band are interposed between the eyes. The scapular region is black, this color continues on the upper part of the operculum, the edge of which is reddish. The dorsal fin is bluish gray, with a darker median longitudinal band. The maximum length of the sea bream is 70 cm, but the most common is between 20 and 50 cm; it can reach a weight of about 10 kg.

  https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparus_aurata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilt-head_bream