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 in all pics are all juveniles, silvery grey with horizontal yellowish stripes on sides. At this stage, they are rather small, not exceeding 10cm in length, and feed mainly on small crayfish.

Habitat:

Rocky and rather shallow shores of Dubrovnik riviera, all pics were taken in less than 2m of depth.

Notes:

I just discovered, 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...