Steentjie
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-27
The southern African black seabream: a small, drab, abundant shoaling sparid of the inshore reefs, treated as a bait fish as often as a target, and a close relative of the European black bream.
The steentjie is the fish a South African shore angler catches while trying to catch something else, and the fish they then use to catch it.
IT IS A BLACK SEABREAM. The genus Spondyliosoma is the same one that gives Europe its black bream, and the family resemblance is obvious in the hand: a compact, deep, grey-brown fish with a small mouth full of fine teeth and a long-based dorsal fin.
IT SHOALS AND IT IS ABUNDANT, which is why a daily bag limit applies and why nobody makes a fuss about it. It works inshore reef and mixed ground down to about sixty metres, and it will enter brackish water.
IT IS A GENUINE LIGHT-TACKLE FISH FOR ANYBODY WILLING TO TREAT IT AS ONE. Small hooks, small baits, and a shoal of steentjie in a gully will give a beginner more action than anything else on the coast.
AND IT IS ALSO BAIT. A small steentjie is a standard live or cut bait for musselcracker, kob and the larger reef fish, which is where its practical significance mostly lies.
THE RULES ARE UNUSUAL: no minimum size at all, and a daily bag limit as a commercial species.
Identification
No photograph of Steentjie 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
- Spondyliosoma emarginatum
- Family
- Sparidae
- Water
- Saltwater, Brackish
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- East & Southern Africa
- A COMPACT GREY-BROWN SPARID with a small mouth and fine, close-set teeth rather than crushing molars.
- A LONG-BASED DORSAL FIN running most of the back, the black seabream shape.
- SMALL: to about 45 cm and usually far less.
- DRAB AND UNPATTERNED, sometimes with faint darker bars — a fish identified by shape rather than by markings.
- THE CLOSE RELATIVE OF THE EUROPEAN BLACK BREAM, and it looks it.
Size
- Typical
- 15–28 cm. No minimum size is set for this species.
- Large
- Over 35 cm is a good steentjie.
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum length of 45 cm.
How South African sea-fishing rules work
SOUTH AFRICA REGULATES SEA FISHING SPECIES BY SPECIES, WHICH IS NOT HOW MOST COUNTRIES DO IT.
A recreational permit is the entry ticket and not the whole of it. On top of it sits a minimum size and a daily bag limit SET PER FISH, a closed season on a small number of species, and a cumulative daily cap across everything caught — so being inside the limit for each species separately does not put you inside the limit overall.
THERE IS A CAP ON HOOKS on a rod-and-line permit. A spearfishing permit is separate, allows no breathing apparatus beyond a snorkel, and PROHIBITS SPEARFISHING IN AN ESTUARY — a flat ban rather than a limit, and the rule visitors most often do not know.
A LANDED FISH MUST KEEP ITS HEAD AND TAIL so its length can be checked. Nothing caught on a recreational permit may be sold by anyone. And a small list of species may not be caught, landed or possessed at all.
FISHINGHQ DOES NOT PRINT THE FIGURES, and the reason is on this page rather than in a policy document: the department's own guidance says adjustments may be forthcoming given the acknowledged crisis of linefish, the numbers differ by species and by area and by whether you were standing on a beach or sitting in a boat, and a stale figure on a fishing site is worse than no figure at all. Get the current position from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, and get the protected-area position from whichever body manages the stretch of coast you are on.
Official guidance — why, and the sources (2)
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
- Marine Recreational Fishing Regulations in South Africa — South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), summarising the Marine Living Resources Act and its regulations, 2023 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The minimum size, daily bag limit and closed season for this species, and the cumulative ten-fish daily cap that sits above every individual limit.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Marine Recreational Fishing: Regulations for Linefishing, under the Marine Living Resources Act — Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, South Africa (published as issued under Act 18 of 1998), 2000 (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: The general framework: the permit requirement and its age threshold, the no-sale rule, the measurement convention, and the closed seasons named in the regulations themselves.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Lifecycle and reproduction
A fast-growing, short-lived, shoaling inshore sparid — the opposite end of the life-history spectrum from the musselcrackers on the same reef. That is why it can carry a daily bag limit and no minimum size where its neighbours carry a strict limit and a large one, and it is a useful reminder that 'sparid' is not a single management category.
Spawns inshore over reef and mixed ground. Like the European black bream it is a nest-associated spawner in the broad pattern of the genus, and like several sparids it shows hermaphroditic tendencies; the specifics for the southern African species are less well documented than for its European relative.
Feeding and senses
A shoaling generalist taking small crustaceans, worms, weed and anything else available around reef and mixed ground. The fine teeth are for picking rather than crushing. Small baits fished on light tackle catch them steadily, and they are one of the principal reasons a large bait intended for a musselcracker comes back stripped.
Close-range vision and taste, feeding competitively in a shoal. Competition rather than caution characterises the take, which is why they are easy to catch and hard to avoid.
Through the year
Present year-round on inshore reef throughout the range. Shoals move around the ground rather than along the coast, so availability at a mark varies day to day rather than seasonally.
Distribution
Western Indian Ocean: South Africa and southern Madagascar. Demersal on inshore reef and mixed ground down to about sixty metres, and entering brackish water. Assessed by the IUCN as Least Concern in 2009.
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
Abundant, easily caught and doubly useful: a light-tackle target that will keep a beginner busy, and one of the standard live and cut baits for the larger reef species on the same ground. It is a commercial species with no minimum size and a limit of a daily bag limit. Where it is being used as bait, note that the ten-fish cumulative daily cap counts it.
Handling and returning
Small and robust, and often destined for a bait bucket rather than the water.
IF IT IS GOING BACK, put it back quickly and wet.
IF IT IS BEING USED AS BAIT, dispatch it properly rather than leaving it to die in a bucket. A fish being used as bait is still a fish and there is no reason for it to suffer.
THE DORSAL SPINES ARE SHARP. Nothing worse than that.
Check the rules before you fish
Fishing laws, bylaws, access rules, seasons, bait restrictions and permitted methods vary by location and can change. Check the current rules from the relevant authority and the water you intend to fish before fishing.
Check with:
- Current national or regional law for where you are fishing
- Current local bylaws
- The relevant fisheries authority
- The landowner, club or fishery whose water it is
- Any restrictions specific to the species or the method you intend to use
Where to go next
Where you will find it
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: Scientific name, family, environment, depth range, latitudinal range, maximum recorded length and weight, and the IUCN category with its assessment date.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Marine Recreational Fishing Regulations in South Africa — South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), summarising the Marine Living Resources Act and its regulations, 2023 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The minimum size, daily bag limit and closed season for this species, and the cumulative ten-fish daily cap that sits above every individual limit.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Marine Recreational Fishing: Regulations for Linefishing, under the Marine Living Resources Act — Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, South Africa (published as issued under Act 18 of 1998), 2000 (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: The general framework: the permit requirement and its age threshold, the no-sale rule, the measurement convention, and the closed seasons named in the regulations themselves.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 global Red List category and the assessment behind it, assessed 02 December 2009. A statement about the species across its range and not about any managed stock.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why the 1 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Where you will find it
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
The Overberg and Cape Agulhas
A claim that a coast or region contains the ground and conditions this species is associated with. It is a distributional statement about the world, it rests on the reference literature and on the institute that surveyed it, and it deliberately asserts nothing about access, permission or catch.
- ORI Fish Fact Sheets: the species accounts of the Oceanographic Research Institute — Oceanographic Research Institute, South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), Durban, 2023 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Distribution, habitat, movement and residency for South African linefish, from the institute that did the tagging and the ageing.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded distribution, depth range and habitat association for the species named.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.