Pink dentex
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The big Canary sama — over a metre and sixteen kilos, with a bulging forehead on old fish, and the fish the word actually means when a Canary source uses it.
Safety: injury while handling fish — can cause injury needing treatment.
Catching Pink dentex
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
`Sama` is one of the handful of fish that appear on almost every Canary island and in almost every Spanish-language article about fishing there, and for a long time it was not obvious which fish it meant. Spanish sources use overlapping names for *Dentex dentex*, the common dentex, and for *Dentex gibbosus*, and the two are not the same animal.
The Canary fisheries directorate's own size table settles it. `Sama, serruda, pargo macho` sits against *Dentex gibbosus*, in its own row, with its own minimum size — and `sama` is not used for *D. dentex* anywhere in the table.
The fish itself is the largest sparid in this file by a distance: FishBase records 106 cm and 16.4 kg, over a depth range of 20 to 220 m, from Portugal to Angola and around the Canary and São Tomé islands as well as in the Mediterranean. It is pink to reddish above with silver flanks, and large old individuals develop a pronounced bulge on the forehead in front of the eye — which is what `gibbosus` refers to and what the Canarian `sama de pluma` alludes to in the elongated first dorsal rays of the young.
It is a serious quarry: a deep-water sparid taken on big fish and squid baits and on heavy jigs over rock and reef edge, from a boat and from the deepest shore marks. It belongs to the bottom-fishing modality the island authority describes rather than to the harbour wall.
How it is caught
Identification
No photograph of Pink dentex 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
- Dentex gibbosus
- Family
- Sparidae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe, Mediterranean, West Africa, North Africa
- Large old fish develop a pronounced bulge on the forehead in front of the eye — the character the species name refers to and the clearest separation from the common dentex.
- Pink to reddish above, shading to silver on the flanks, often with scattered darker spots on younger fish.
- Young fish carry conspicuously elongated first rays in the dorsal fin, which is what the Canarian name `sama de pluma` refers to.
- Very much larger than the common dentex an angler is likely to meet: FishBase records 106 cm and 16.4 kg.
- Strong canine teeth at the front of both jaws, as the genus has.
Size
- Typical
- 1.5–4 kg (3.3–8.8 lb)
- Large
- 6–10 kg (13–22 lb)
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 106 cm and 16.4 kg
Lifecycle and reproduction
Benthopelagic over a depth range of 20 to 220 m on rock, reef edge and adjacent broken ground. Medium resilience. Larger fish hold deeper, which is why the serious fishery for it is a boat fishery and why the shore captures come from marks where rock falls quickly into depth.
Not established in detail on the FishBase record. Sex change is documented across the sparids and the specific pattern for this species is not asserted here; what is worth stating is the same consequence as for its relatives, that the largest fish in a population are not a random sample of it.
Feeding and senses
Takes fish and cephalopods, seizing with the front canines. It is a genuine predator rather than a picker, which separates it from most of the family and decides the bait: a whole squid or a fish fillet, not a prawn.
A visual hunter around structure in clear deep water, and wary. Heavy visible terminal tackle costs bites from large sparids of this type, and the trace is where a session for it is won or lost.
Through the year
Present year-round in the archipelago rather than running seasonally. Depth rather than calendar governs where it is: larger fish stay deep, and the shallowest captures come in the warmer months.
Distribution
Eastern Atlantic: Portugal to Angola ; also in the Mediterranean and around the Canary and São Tomé-Principe islands
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
The large sama of Canary and West African bottom fishing, and one of the fish the archipelago's boat and deep-shore fishing is actually for. Taken on whole squid, fish baits and heavy jigs over rock and reef edge. It appears in Spanish-language island material constantly, under a name shared loosely with the common dentex — so a visiting angler reading about sama should check which fish the source means before deciding what tackle to bring.
Handling and returning
Real canine teeth at the front of both jaws and stiff dorsal spines on a heavy fish. Support a large fish horizontally under the belly rather than by the jaw, unhook with pliers, and keep fingers out of the mouth. Fish brought up from depth suffer barotrauma and may not be releasable.
Safety
Injury while handling fish — Can cause injury needing treatment
The front canines on a fish of several kilos are large enough to go through a finger, and the spiny dorsal is stiff and sharp. Injuries happen at the unhooking stage on a fish still fresh enough to thrash.
What reduces it: Unhook with long pliers, keep hands out of the mouth entirely, and control the fish across the body with the dorsal folded rather than by the jaw. Support the weight of a big fish under the belly whenever it is lifted.
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 Dentex gibbosus.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 Least Concern assessment for Dentex gibbosus, assessed 18 August 2009.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Tallas mínimas de captura — Canarias: minimum landing sizes and closed seasons — Gobierno de Canarias, Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca — Dirección General de Pesca, with the Grupo de Acción Costera de Tenerife and the Cabildo de Tenerife (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That the Canary fisheries directorate regulates the recreational landing of this species and therefore treats it as quarry, and the Canarian common name it publishes beside the scientific name.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Which species Canary shore anglers target from rock, mole and beach, with the techniques and baits the Spanish-language regional guidance describes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why the 5 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.
Common dentex
Dentex gibbosus develops a pronounced forehead bulge on old fish and reaches 106 cm and 16.4 kg; Dentex dentex does not and is smaller. Spanish sources use overlapping common names for the two, which is why the Canary directorate's `sama, serruda, pargo macho` against D. gibbosus was the thing that finally resolved it.
- 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
Large-eye dentex
Dentex macrophthalmus has an eye enormously enlarged for low light and is recorded from 30 to 500 m; Dentex gibbosus is recorded from 20 to 220 m and reaches nearly twice the length. Depth separates them in practice before anything else does.
- 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 — 2 connections
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.
Deadbaiting
Unlike most of the sparids it shares ground with, it seizes fish and cephalopods with front canines rather than cropping. That decides the bait, and it is why a prawn intended for a bream is the wrong offering for it.
- Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Canary shore angling practice: the techniques and tackle used from rock, mole and beach, and the species each is used for.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Guías de zonas de pesca en Canarias — Tenerife, Gran Canaria y Lanzarote — GuíaCanarias (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The techniques named for Canarian fishing — rockfishing, jigging, light bottom fishing and squid jigs — and the species attached to them.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Jigging
The Canary material describes jigging and heavy bottom fishing over reef edge for the large sparids, and the sama's band of 20 to 220 m is the water that fishing covers.
- Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Canary shore angling practice: the techniques and tackle used from rock, mole and beach, and the species each is used for.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Guías de zonas de pesca en Canarias — Tenerife, Gran Canaria y Lanzarote — GuíaCanarias (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The techniques named for Canarian fishing — rockfishing, jigging, light bottom fishing and squid jigs — and the species attached to them.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Inshore ground
Recorded as benthopelagic over a depth range of 20 to 220 m. Its shallow edge reaches a deep shore mark and the fishery for it is a boat fishery, which is why nothing attaches it to a harbour wall.
- 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 Dentex gibbosus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.