Sea Sweep

The sea sweep has deep and strongly compressed body with a thin caudal peduncle. The head is moderately sized with an almost straight dorsal profile, a short snout and quite large eyes. The mouth is small and oblique with small but strong teeth in the jaws arranged in broad bands with the outer band being enlarged and recurved. Most of the body is covered in very small ctenoid scales and there is a gently curved lateral line. The dorsal fin continuous with a very short first spine, there are a 10 spines which progressively become higher towards the tail, the first rays in the soft-rayed portion of the dorsal fin is only slightly higher than the spiny portion giving the dorsal fin an almost straight profile. The soft-rayed part of the dorsal fin contains 26-28 soft rays. The anal fin has 3 spines and 27-28 soft rays.

In Australia the species is known from the southern coast of New South Wales, around the south of the country and north to the central coast of Western Australia, and in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria.

The sea sweep is of secondary importance as a target for commercial fisheries and is caught using purse seines and trap nets.