The spotted seabass (Dicentrarchus punctatus) is a species of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Moronidae, the temperate basses.

This species is found in the marine and brackish waters of the coastal eastern Atlantic Ocean from the English Channel to the Canary Islands and Senegal, as well as through the Mediterranean Sea.

The spotted seabass was first formally described as Sciaena punctata in 1792 by the German physician and naturalist Marcus Elieser Bloch with its type locality given as the Mediterranean Sea.

Its diet is largely composed of shrimp and molluscs; additionally, it at times eats smaller fish than itself.

[5]The spotted seabass is regarded as a highly palatable fish and is commercially harvested using bottom trawls, beach seines, trammel nets and by hook-and-line.