What is "black sea bass"

Sea bass \Sea" bass`\ . (Zo["o]l.)

1. A large marine food fish ( Serranus atrarius syn. Centropristis atrarius) which abounds on the Atlantic coast of the United States. It is dark bluish, with black bands, and more or less varied with small white spots and blotches. Called also, locally, blue bass, black sea bass, blackfish, bluefish, and black perch.

2. A California food fish ( Cynoscion nobile); -- called also white sea bass, and sea salmon.

n. bluish black-striped sea bass of the Atlantic coast of the United States [syn: black bass, Centropistes striata]

The black sea bass (Centropristis striata) is an exclusively marine grouper found more commonly in northern than in southern ranges.

It inhabits the coasts from Maine to northeast Florida and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. The three large biomass populations of black sea bass are the mid-Atlantic stock, from Cape Cod in Massachusetts to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, the South Atlantic stock, from Cape Hatteras to the southern tip of the Florida peninsula, and the Gulf of Mexico stock, from the southern tip of the Florida peninsula to Texas. They can be found in inshore waters (bays and sounds) and offshore in waters up to a depth of . They spend most of their time close to the sea floor and often congregate around bottom formations such as rocks, man-made reefs, wrecks, jetties, piers, and bridge pilings.