Blackspot seabream
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The deep red sparid of the eastern Atlantic — the Azorean goraz, Near Threatened, and the fish `besugo` means on the Spanish mainland but not in the Canaries.
Safety: fish welfare — can cause injury needing treatment.
Catching Blackspot seabream
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
This is the large *Pagellus*, and the one a single word is most likely to send a reader to the wrong fish for.
The Canary fisheries directorate gives `besugo` to *Pagellus acarne*, the axillary seabream. On the Spanish mainland the same word means this fish — bigger, deeper-living, and considerably more valuable. In the Azores it is `goraz` and it supports a fishery of its own; the annotated checklist also records `peixão`.
It is a handsome fish: rose-red to pinkish above with a silvery flank, a very large eye, and a dark blotch at the start of the lateral line just behind the gill cover — which is where the English name comes from and which separates it from the axillary seabream's mark in the pectoral axil. FishBase records 70 cm and 4 kg, and an age of fifteen years, over a depth range of 150 to 700 m and usually 150 to 300 m.
Those depths describe the adult fishery. Juveniles are coastal, and a small blackspot seabream taken from a deep Azorean harbour wall is an ordinary capture rather than an anomaly — Azorean harbours are cut into steep volcanic ground and the water beside them is deeper than the equivalent structure almost anywhere in northern Europe.
It is assessed by the IUCN as **Near Threatened**, and the reason is the combination the sparids keep presenting: long life, late maturity, high value and heavy targeting. The Azorean and Iberian fisheries for it are managed accordingly, and the current position belongs to the fisheries authority rather than to this page.
Identification
No photograph of Blackspot seabream has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Pagellus bogaraveo
- Family
- Sparidae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Near Threatened
- Regions
- Western Europe, Northern Europe, Mediterranean, North Africa, West Africa
- A dark blotch at the START of the lateral line, just behind the gill cover — not in the pectoral axil, which is where the axillary seabream carries its mark.
- A very large eye, which is the low-light adaptation of a fish that lives between 150 and 300 m as an adult.
- Rose-red to pinkish above with a silvery flank; the red deepens with age and size.
- Much larger than the other two Pagellus: FishBase records 70 cm and 4 kg against 36 cm for the axillary seabream.
- Juveniles are coastal and far paler, and are the fish taken from deep harbour walls in the Atlantic islands.
Size
- Typical
- 300 g–1.5 kg (11 oz–3.3 lb)
- Large
- 2–3 kg (4.4–6.6 lb)
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 70 cm, 4 kg and an age of 15 years
Lifecycle and reproduction
Benthopelagic over a depth range of 150 to 700 m and usually 150 to 300 m as an adult, with juveniles inshore. Medium resilience and a maximum age of fifteen years. It is a protandrous hermaphrodite in the way of several sparids — maturing male and changing to female — which makes the larger fish disproportionately female.
Protandry is recorded across the genus: fish mature as males and change to female with size and age. On a heavily targeted species that inverts the usual concern — size-selective fishing here removes the FEMALES, and a population fished hard for its largest individuals loses its egg production rather than its fertilisation capacity.
Feeding and senses
Takes crustaceans, molluscs, worms and small fish over and near the bottom in deep water, and small invertebrates inshore as a juvenile. It is a bottom feeder with a modest mouth, so the hooks that catch it are smaller than its eventual size suggests.
The enlarged eye is the whole apparatus: this is a low-light visual feeder at 200 m or more, where scent and the lateral line do proportionately more work. Deep fishing for it responds to baited multi-hook rigs and reflective or luminous finishes rather than to presentation subtlety.
Through the year
Present on the same deep ground year-round, with a seasonal movement between depths in parts of its range. In the Azores the goraz fishery is a year-round deep one, and the inshore juveniles are what a shore angler meets.
Distribution
Eastern Atlantic: Norway, Strait of Gibraltar to Cape Blanc in Mauritania, Madeira, Canary Islands, and western Mediterranean (rare beyond the Sicilian Strait)
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
A prime deep-water target across the eastern Atlantic and the fish the Azorean goraz fishery is built on, taken on baited multi-hook rigs and deep jigs from a boat. Juveniles are caught from deep harbour walls and rock in the Atlantic islands on ordinary light tackle. It is assessed Near Threatened, it is long-lived, late-maturing and highly valued, and the current rules belong to the fisheries authority for wherever it is being fished.
Handling and returning
Adults come up from 150 m or more with severe barotrauma and cannot be returned in any meaningful sense, so the decision about what to keep is made before the line goes down. Small dorsal spines and a bony gill cover; unhook with pliers and support a large fish horizontally.
Safety
Fish welfare — Can cause injury needing treatment
Adult fish taken from 150 to 300 m arrive with expanded swim bladders, everted stomachs and protruding eyes. They float, do not descend, and die whether or not they swim off. On a Near Threatened, late-maturing species that loss is disproportionate.
What reduces it: Decide the bag before dropping and stop when it is reached rather than continuing to catch and release on deep ground. Where release is intended, a descending device is the only method with real evidence behind it.
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
More fish
Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.
Sources and evidence
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Pagellus bogaraveo.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The Near Threatened assessment for Pagellus bogaraveo, assessed 17 August 2009.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Marine fishes of the Azores: an annotated checklist and bibliography — Santos, Porteiro & Barreiros — Arquipélago, Life and Marine Sciences, Supplement 1, University of the Azores, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That this species is recorded from the Azores, and the Portuguese and Azorean vernacular names the checklist gives it.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Why the 4 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 2 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Axillary seabream
Pagellus bogaraveo carries a dark blotch at the START of the lateral line behind the gill cover and reaches 70 cm and 4 kg; Pagellus acarne carries its mark in the pectoral AXIL and reaches 36 cm. The Canary fisheries directorate calls P. acarne `besugo`; on the Spanish mainland that word means P. bogaraveo, which appears in the same table under community rules.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Common pandora
Pagellus erythrinus is the smallest and reddest of the three, without either the axillary blotch of Pagellus acarne or the shoulder blotch of Pagellus bogaraveo. The Azores checklist and the Canary directorate both give it a name of its own — breca — which is the one Pagellus name that does not move between regions.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How it is caught
What experienced anglers do — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Deep-drop fishing
Adults live between 150 and 300 m and are taken on baited multi-hook rigs and deep jigs from a boat. The species is Near Threatened, long-lived and late-maturing, and nothing brought up from that depth can be returned — so the bag decision on this ground is made before fishing rather than at the rail.
- Marine fishes of the Azores: an annotated checklist and bibliography — Santos, Porteiro & Barreiros — Arquipélago, Life and Marine Sciences, Supplement 1, University of the Azores, 1997 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: That Pagellus bogaraveo is recorded from the Azores as goraz and peixão and is a named fishery species there.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The widely restated practitioner account of deep baited-rig fishing for blackspot seabream.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Open ocean
Recorded as benthopelagic over a depth range of 150 to 700 m and usually 150 to 300 m, from Norway to Mauritania including Madeira and the Canaries. The very large eye is the low-light adaptation of a fish that lives there.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Pagellus bogaraveo.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.