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Fish4Life provides everything you need to enjoy seafood responsibly. Explore information and practical tips for safe and sustainable seafood consumption, and help protect marine life by reporting undersized or illegally traded seafood.

Red mullet
Mullus barbatus
Κουτσομούρα

Sustainability Status

Undersize fish highly caught by trawlers

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Help us protect our seas by reporting illegal or undersized fish that you see in markets, restaurants or fishing boats
Think before you eat – This species faces increasing pressures and should only be consumed responsibly

Legal

Minimum Size

11 cm

Prohibited Consumption Period

–

Sustainable

Minimum Size

13 cm

Avoid Consumption Period

April – September

Advice for Consumption

Think before consuming this species.

Greek legislation sets an unsustainably small legal minimum size and no closed season, leaving juvenile and spawning fish completely unprotected.

Respect minimum sustainable size limits and do not consume during its breeding season. Choose sustainable seafood!

Archipelagos Tips

If you choose to consume this species, select larger-sized fish. This species is caught by both industrial trawl fisheries and small-scale fishers.

Avoid fish caught by trawlers and prefer fish from small-scale fisheries, which are generally more selective and more likely to catch larger, mature individuals. In Greece, trawling is prohibited from June to September.

During this period, this species available on the market is caught exclusively by small-scale (artisanal).

Common names

FR

Rouget de vase

it

Triglia di fango

es

Salmonete de fango

tr

Barbun

pt

Salmonete-da-vasa

nl

Gewone zeebarbeel

de

Meerbarbe

toxicity

This species is safe to consume.

iucn info

Least concern (LC)

Description

Reddish-pink body with orange-brown and yellow patches on the body. Two widely separated dorsal fins, and a pair of barbels under the chin that are smaller or the same lenth as the pectoral fin. Steep head profile, with mouth on ventral side.

It looks like Mullus surmuletus (Striped red mullet), which has a striped first dorsal fin, while Mullus barbatus does not. Both found over sand and mud, using the barbels as probes to churn up the sediment in search of food.

Did you know?

Red mullets have barbels that help them detect food!

Ecological Aspects

Diet

Benthivorous.
Feeds on polychaete worms, small crustaceans, molluscs.

habitat

Demersal.
Found on gravel, sand and mud bottoms of the continental shelf.

Max size & depth range

Max length: 38.2 cm
Max weight: 680 g
Depth range: 10-328 m

breeding & Growth

Seasonal broadcast spawner with pelagic larval phase.
Gonad maturation in spring, batch spawning in late Spring–Summer, resting phase in Autumn–Winter.
Growth rate: Moderate (k = 0.34yr⁻¹).

Longevity & presence

Lifespan: 3-5 years
Max reported age: 7 years
Distribution: Norway, British Isles (occasionally Scandinavia) to Dakar, Senegal, Canary Islands, Mediterranean, including Azores and Madeira.

appearance changes

Moderate ontogenetic change where colour intensifies and body becomes more robust with age.

Reproductive Cycle

A female releases between 3,600 and 88,000 eggs per spawning season once per year.
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If you’d like to learn more about the work of the Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation, please visit our website: https://archipelago.gr/

Good choice – Consumption of this species is currently considered sustainable

Illegal species – Fishing, selling and consumption of this species is illegal

Fishstocks – Declining due to overexploitation

Think before you eat – This species faces increasing pressures and should only be consumed responsibly

Bad choice – Consumption of this species is unsustainable

Health concerns –
Can accumulate dangerously high levels of toxic substances harmful to health

Alien / Invasive – This species is not from this region and can have a negative impact on the ecosystem and threaten local biodiversity, so it is sustainable to eat

Aquafarms – You will commonly find this species coming from aquafarms