Cobia is a warm‑water, coastal species that’s caught in many tropical and subtropical seas worldwide.

Main areas where cobia fish is caught

  • Western Atlantic & Caribbean: From Nova Scotia in Canada, down the U.S. East Coast (especially from Virginia south), through the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America to Argentina.
  • U.S. hotspots: Very common off the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts, including Chesapeake Bay, the Carolinas, Florida (Atlantic and Gulf sides), and westward through Louisiana and Texas.
  • Eastern Atlantic: Along the African coast from Morocco down to South Africa.
  • Indo‑West Pacific: Off East Africa, around India, and near Japan and northern Australia, particularly in warm‑temperate to tropical waters.
  • Australia: Coastal waters north of Sydney, across northern Australia, and west to Shark Bay (Western Australia), usually in 5–100 m depths near reefs, wrecks, and other structure.
  • Introduced/occasional areas: Recorded in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and in the eastern Pacific off Ecuador, Colombia, and Panama after escapes from aquaculture operations.

Typical fishing environments

  • Nearshore and coastal waters, usually from very shallow inshore zones out to about 50–200 ft (roughly 15–60 m) deep.
  • Around structure : reefs, wrecks, buoys, pilings, oil platforms, harbor entrances, channels, and other high‑current areas where baitfish gather.
  • In warm water (about 68–86°F), often migrating seasonally: moving south and offshore in fall–winter and north again in spring–summer in the Atlantic and Gulf regions.

Wild‑caught vs farmed cobia

  • Wild‑caught: In U.S. markets, wild cobia typically comes from fisheries spanning Virginia through the Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America.
  • Farmed (aquaculture) cobia: Also available, produced in offshore farms (for example, in tropical regions), and increasingly sold in seafood markets and restaurants as “farmed cobia.”

In everyday terms, if you order cobia in North America, there’s a good chance it was caught in the U.S. Southeast or Gulf of Mexico, or raised on a warm‑water offshore farm and shipped in.

TL;DR: Cobia is mainly caught in warm coastal waters of the Atlantic and Indo‑Pacific—especially the U.S. Southeast and Gulf of Mexico, northern Australia, and tropical coasts of Africa and Asia, often near reefs, wrecks, and other structure.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.