Barred sand bass
| Barred sand bass | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Serranidae |
| Genus: | Paralabrax |
| Species: | P. nebulifer |
| Binomial name | |
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Paralabrax nebulifer (Girard, 1854) |
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The barred sand bass, Paralabrax nebulifer, is a type of sea bass that lives mainly off the coast of California.
The body of the barred sand bass is elongated and compressed. It has a large mouth, and the lower jaw protrudes slightly. Its color is gray-white on the back and white on the belly. There are dark vertical bars on the sides. Barred sand bass can be easily distinguished from kelp bass by the height of the third dorsal spine. In barred sand bass, this spine is the longest of the dorsal spines, while in the kelp bass, the third, fourth and fifth dorsal spines are of about equal length. Barred sand bass can be distinguished from spotted sand bass by the lack of spots on the body.
Barred sand bass occur from Magdalena Bay, Baja California, to Santa Cruz, California. This species occurs from shallow water to depths of 600 feet; however, most fish are taken in 60 to 90 feet of water.
The barred sand bass diet includes crabs, octopus, squid, and small fishes. The adults aggregate and spawn during warmer months. The eggs are free floating. The striped young appear in southern California nearshore areas and eelgrass beds during fall and winter.
In the 1960s and 1990s, biologists with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) tagged a total of 9,000 barred sand bass in southern California. The recapture information from these two time periods enabled us to document large-scale spawning-related movements of barred sand bass for the first time. Using this dataset we have attempted to discover 1) how long individual barred sand bass remain at spawning grounds during spawning season, 2) how far fish migrate to spawn, and 3) whether fish show fidelity to certain spawning locations. Overall, the CDFW received 972 barred sand bass tag returns from tagging efforts conducted in the 1960s and 1990s (an 11 percent recapture rate). Based on recapture frequencies, it appears that barred sand bass individuals remain on spawning grounds (e.g., Huntington Beach Flats) for at least one month during peak spawning season. Following spawning season, some fish remain, while others move away. The average migration distance from spawning locations was about 15 miles, although it appears that not all individuals at spawning grounds migrate to the same locations after spawning season. Overall, the farthest recapture distance was approximately 57 miles. Annual patterns in the timing and occurrence of recaptures strongly suggest barred sand bass visit the same spawning grounds year after year.
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