Fully mature bass undertake seasonal migrations from summer coastal feeding grounds to winter offshore
spawning grounds (Pawson et al. 2007) coinciding with the decrease in coastal water temperature (Pawson & Pickett 1987) that generally occurs in October. Numerous tagging studies have shown that sea bass have a strong fidelity to summer feeding grounds, where they will return year on year (Claridge & Potter 1983, Pawson et al. 1987, Kelley 1988, Pawson, Pickett, et al. 2007). Some bass have been recaptured on the very same rock where they were first caught and tagged, but most recaptures have been within 80 km of their first release (Pickett et al. 2004, Quayle & Righton 2007).