Locations of 12 sampling sites of Lateolabrax maculatus. 85 individuals of L. maculatus were collected from 12 geographic locations including Tianjin (TJ), Yantai (YT), Wendeng (WD), Lianyungang (LY), Zhoushan (ZS), Wenzhou (WZ), Shantou (ST), Shenzhen (SZ), Zhanjiang (ZJ), Haikang (HK), Tieshan (TS), Fangcheng (FC) along Chinese coastal waters. The average sea surface temperature (SST) of 1981-2010 at 12 sampling sites were retrieved from NOAA Optimum Interpolation (OI) Sea Surface Temperature (SST) V2 (https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.noaa.oisst.v2.html).