Salema

Description:

Also known as Dreamfish, Cow bream or Goldline; and locally as Salpa; this is a very common sea bream of Adriatic, and is often seen close to shores roaming in shoals. Presented here are shoals of medium sized (and aged) fish, 20-25cm in length. They are silvery grey with horizontal yellowish stripes on sides.

Habitat:

This is a very common gregarious fish in Adriatic waters, occurring all along Croatian littoral. Here, on a popular beaches in a village of Dubrovnik riviera (Cavtat). The depth in this zone is between 0,5m up to 3m, and then descending sharply down to 10m. The sea bottom here is rocky, creating many crevasses and tunnels, and rocks are abundantly covered in algae. In those deeper waters, there are some large colonies of sea grass.

Notes:

This summer, I learnt on French Wikipedia, that salema-porgy is reputed as a fish whose consumption may prove hallucinogenic; and in a bad way! Apparently, the toxicity of its flesh is due to a certain invasive algae, consumed by the fish, and only in certain times of the year. The story of it is weird, and I could not confirm it on Croatian websites; where salema is occasionally spearfished and consumed...