Common cuttlefish: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the common cuttlefish lives – recorded in 16 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Sepia officinalis
Group	Octopuses, squid & cuttlefish
Status	Least concern (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	16 countries
Continents	Asia, Europe
Class	Cephalopod
Order	Sepiida
Family	Sepiidae

Where does the common cuttlefish live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the common cuttlefish in 16 countries and territories across Asia and Europe. In Spain, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, Portugal it is listed as introduced (GRIIS checklists via GBIF).

France
United Kingdom (introduced)
Spain (introduced)
Netherlands
Guernsey
Ireland
Germany
Croatia
Belgium
Italy (introduced)
Israel
Portugal (introduced)
Jersey
Denmark
Greece (introduced)
Norway

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the common cuttlefish endangered?

The common cuttlefish’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Least concern” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the common cuttlefish?

The common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) is a cephalopod in the order Sepiida and the family Sepiidae, genus Sapia. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the common cuttlefish

The common cuttlefish or European common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) is one of the largest and best-known cuttlefish species. They are a migratory species that spend the summer and spring inshore for spawning and then move to depths of 100–200 metres (330–660 ft) during autumn and winter. They grow to 49 centimetres (19 in) in mantle length and 4 kilograms (8.8 lb) in weight. Animals from subtropical seas are smaller and rarely exceed 30 centimetres (12 in) in mantle length.

The common cuttlefish is native to at least the Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, and Baltic Sea, although subspecies have been proposed as far south as South Africa. It lives on sand and mud seabeds and it can tolerate brackish water conditions.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Common cuttlefish (revision 1358132544), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q756724 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).