Biology of the white seabass (Atractoscion nobilis)

The white seabass is the largest of the 10 species in the family Sciaenidae (croakers and drums) known to occur in California coastal waters, and can reach a size of up to 5 feet and about 95 pounds (Miller and Lea 1972). 

White seabass are broadcast spawners, with multiple (2-5) males simultaneously releasing gametes to fertilize the eggs of a spawning female within the water column  (Aalbers and Drawbridge, in press). The spawning activity of white seabass occurs from March through July and peaks in May, with the majority of spawning events occurring over the two hour period following sunset. A nighttime spawning strategy is typical of other temperate croakers, and has likely been adopted to reduce initial egg predation (Holt 1985). 

Like most croakers, male white seabass produce sounds by contracting specialized sonic musculature to resonate low frequency sound off of the adjacent swim bladder.

Sonic musculature in a dissected mature male white seabass  

As is the case in most croaker species, female white seabass lack this specialized structure  (Tavolga 1964). Sound production has been associated with reproduction in other sciaenid species, including the red drum Sciaenops ocellata (Guest and Lasswell 1978) spotted seatrout Cynoscion nebulosis (Mok and Gilmore 1983), weakfish Cynoscion regalis (Connaughton and Taylor 1995) and orange-mouth corvina Cynoscion xanthulus (Fish and Cummings 1972). Numerous fish species have developed effective sound producing and detection mechanisms to take advantage of the high speed and distance of sound propagation underwater (Hawkins and Myrberg 1983). Sound production apparently supports the development of spawning aggregations and may aid in the simultaneous release of gametes during broadcast spawning events after dark. 

Learn more about white seabass fishery and management

Back to white seabass acoustic recording project

References:

Aalbers and Drawbridge. In press. White seabass spawning behavior and sound production. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.

Connaughton, M. A. and M. H. Taylor. 1995. Seasonal and daily cycles in sound production associated with spawning in the weakfish, Cynoscion regalis. Environmental Biology of Fishes 42:233-240

Fish, J. F. and W. C. Cummings. 1972. A 50-dB increase in sustained ambient noise from fish Cynoscion xanthulus. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 52:1262-1270

Guest, W. C. and J. L. Lasswell. 1978. Notes on courtship behavior and sound production of red drum. Copeia 337-338

Hawkins, A. D., and A. A. Myrberg Jr. 1983. Pages 348-381 in B. Lewis, editor. Hearing and sound communication under water. Bioacoustics: A Comparative Approach. Academic Press. London Ltd.

Holt, G. J., S. A. Holt, and C. R. Arnold. 1985. Diel periodicity of spawning in sciaenids. Marine Ecology Progress Series 27:1-7

Miller, D. J. and R. N. Lea. 1972. Guide to the coastal marine fishes of California. California Department of Fish and Game Fish Bulletin 112:1-62

Mok, H. and R.G. Gilmore. 1983. Analysis of sound production in estuarine aggregations of Pogonias cromis, Bairdiella chrysouea, and Cynoscion nebulosis (Sciaenidae). Bulletin of the Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica 22(2):157-186

Tavolga, W. N. 1964. Pages 195-209 in W. N. Tavolga, editor. Sonic characteristics and mechanisms in marine fishes. Marine Bioacoustics. Pergamon Press Inc. New York.