Common Dentex

Photo: Alessandra Boccabianca · © all rights reserved

Solitary adult dentex — powerful, fast, and unmistakably predatory — patrol the deeper margins of the Secca delle Fumose between 20 and 30 metres, appearing briefly before veering away with the characteristic relaxed confidence of an apex fish that has learned to associate divers with neither threat nor food. Juveniles in loose groups of 10 to 20 are found higher on the seamount structure around posidonia margins. The dentex is increasingly scarce across the Mediterranean, making the Fumose population — inside an informally protected zone — genuinely significant.