The Gilthead seabream is distributed from British Isles to Cape Verde, including the Mediterranean Sea and around the Canary Islands (FAO 2019). Several studies on the stock structure have been conducted on the NE Atlantic region and in the Mediterranean (e.g. (De Innocentiis et al. 2004), (Arabaci et al. 2010), (Gkagkavouzis et al. 2019)), lacking the inclusion of the African region.

These two seabream species, Sparus auriga and S. aurata are grouped by the CECAF in the assessments of demersal resources, thus single species assessment is not available (FAO 2018). Therefore, for now, a management unit is considered within Moroccan waters.