The Black Bream Project

Each year at around Eastertime the seabed at sites throughout Dorset, is transformed in a spectacle of nature as tens of thousands of black bream, Spondyliosoma cantharus, arrive to breed.   For divers the seabed is transformed into a moonscape of craters and for anglers, fishing boats head to sea to catch the fish which are prized for sport and/or as delicious seafood.

Despite this dense, breeding aggregation, divers rarely encounter bream underwater – the fish are shy and often move away until the divers have gone. For a better understanding of natural breeding behaviour, together with Matt Doggett, we placed video cameras on the seabed in the nesting areas between Kimmeridge and Poole Bay.

• Find out what happens when the divers are not there?
  
  
• What is life like on and around Dorset’s black bream nesting areas?
  
  
• See the bream swim back and forth across the site in large shoals
  
  
• Watch the male fish, start to build their nests, keep other males away and attract passing females.
  
  
• See the eggs that the male keeps clear from sediment and any would-be predators until they hatch. And observe the predators taking advantage of an empty nest if he should move away.