This is a widespread species in the Eastern Atlantic from Norway to Mauritania, including Macaronesia and the western Mediterranean.

The blackspot seabream was first formally described as Sparus bogaraveo in 1768 by the Danish zoologist and mineralogist Morten Thrane Brünnich with its type localities given as Marseille.

[4] The blackspot seabream has the specific name bogaraveo which is derived from the local common name for this species in Marseille, bogue-raveo.

The back and upper flanks are reddish in colour and the lower part of the body is silvery with a pinkish tinge.

[2] The blackspot seabream is largely found in the waters of the eastern North Atlantic from Norway south to Cape Blanc in Mauritania, its range extends into the western Mediterranean as far as the Strait of Sicily and the Adriatic.

[2] The blackspot seabream occurs in inshore waters above different types of substrates, rocks, sand and mud.

[8] The blackspot sea bream is an important food fish which is marketed fresh and frozen around the Mediterranean.

It was heavily exploited by the artisanal fleet of the Strait of Gibraltar where boats from Andalusia fished for blackspot seabream using a vertical deep water longline called a voracera which was baited with small sardines.