Both species are very common around the Illawarra and the poor tarwhine are often confused with yellowfin bream.

It is very important to know the difference between them as tarwhine have a minimum size of 20cm as against 25cm for the bream.

Tarwhine have prominent golden lines on their head and body, with a silver background colour and their head is more rounded and snout not as pointed as bream.

They also have more scale rows above the lateral line where bream have a silver to olive-green body with yellowish pectoral, ventral and anal fins. The three species including the more southern black bream, have a combined bag limit of 10 and possession limit of 20.

For further information on saltwater bag and size limits as well as fish ID you can download the FishSmart app. It provides access on the differences between a range of similar species.

More information is at https://bit.ly/2zv1Ilw.