In fact, barracudas are more famous for being photographic models than as fearsome creatures. Although they can be found in the deep ocean, they prefer coastal habitats along the continental shelves and coral reefs. Like most fish, barracuda do not have eyelids. If you see one moving very slowly, it is possible that they are actually asleep.
However when asleep, they are still alert for danger- so try not to disturb them because they could accidentally attack you! Barracuda usually can reach up to about 5 — 6 feet long and can weigh around lbs.
The age of a barracuda can be measured from the number of rings produced each year in its scales. Barracudas can live up to 14 years. Barracudas can swim over 25 mph in short bursts- they do this to overtake prey that may be trying to swim away.
Because their bodies are long and slender, they can easily sneak through the reefs while hunting. The barracuda is an opportunistic predator- they feed only on other animals in surrounding water. Because barracudas grow to be very large sized fish, they have few natural predators aside form sharks, killer whales, larger barracuda, giant tuna, and dolphin.
They often camouflage near sea grass to ambush unsuspecting prey, and move quickly over 25 mph through the corals reefs in search for food. Our 5th tropical trip. On our first trip to Eleuthera I saw my first great Atlantic barracuda. I turned around and saw a 6 foot long dark shape in the water.
I now understand that barracudas are brown on top and can look like sharks from above. The next day I went again figuring, what are the chances. I swam yards out, stayed for a while, was looking around, when I turned and saw this large pike fish waaaaaaay off in the distance really high visibility that day.
I turned back around to look at some reef fish. Then I turned back again only 10 seconds have elapsed and there was this gigantic barracuda staring right at my mask.. Two feet from me. Scared me to death. You know those really savage looking pics of barracudas on the net? THATs the guy that was on me!!
I decided to gently swim towards him to try and stand him down and get some bearing on what to do. It worked, and he turned around.
I watched him swim off… To invisibility feet or more, remember. Then I turned, and swam for shore.. Really fast. And that day, I was really cooking in. After 30 seconds, I turned around on my back to see if he was following me. I repeated the same chase off pattern, followed by more panicked high speed swimming for shore.
The exact same thing happened, again! He disappeared, and the later was literally on me. I ended up swimming gently then, on my back, just with my hands, to keep an eye on him. He stayed with me, inch for inch, not moving a fin btw, the whole way to shore, right up until I felt the sand hit my back… I was in 9 inches of water, at shore.
I scrambled out of the water, and he just sat there in the shallows. He owned that cove, and he was letting me know … he owned my ass too. All, about 5 feet in length. Two of the instances, the were schools of three. Eleuthera seems to have a lot of them. I can totally believe that they attack unprovoked. I was doing a working dive in Cayman Brac 2days ago…diving by the port commonly known as Panama Canal.
When i was reeling out my 3rd transect and counting fishes, this barracuda swims up out of the clear blue. I know this. They love following divers, as is the habit. If it was only following my buddy and I……then it would have all been copacetic. The barracuda kept charging at us and stopping short and staring at us individually every couple of minutes until we reeled up our last transect i surveyed 5xft transects twice….
We were both afraid that it would just take an annoyed or exploratory chunk out of our legs….. Another postgrad research student here in the Brac doing surveys also witnessed this sort of behaviour from a large barracuda today. Either way…these fishes are obviously unpredictable. We just came from Exumas, Bahamas. Barracuda was following me on one snorkeling trip. It exhibited the described behavior — followed me on one side, then disappeared, then followed me on a different side.
I did not know that it was barracuda at the time, made a picture and realized that later.. Interestingly, I was encountered by 2 dolphins at the same place.
Though I knew that they were not dangerous to people, I decided to swim to the shore. They followed me! Thus, I brought 2 dolphins to the excited beach public. Tom, just got back from diving Cozumel. Have been around Barracudas for many years but now have a newfound respect. We often snorkel off the beach at our resort on off days or afternoons. I was snorkeling this past Sunday when an unprovoked attach happened and I got it on film.
I was not bitten, but the fish was about feet away and turned, faced me and swam straight at my mask. I moved to block with my left arm and he swam so close to my arm and face, I have o idea how he did not hit me. Then he swam low and sideways very distinctly looking at me and struck at me again, I was turning to swim away was sure he would hit my fins or leg, he came so close in the video it looks like his tail hit my mask. My son and wife witnessed the aggression a nd it was significantly scary and as in your case, my son is very afraid of the fish now.
I feel lucky, this fish was between 4. Anyway the Baracuda incident was long 2 hour swim in Halmahera with huge concentrations of fish, many groupers, potato cod etc and a passing Black Tip every 10 mins. It circled me 3 times before vanishing at speed. This all lasted about 10 seconds and despite initially not flinching my heart was palpably beating the longer he sized me up. Visibility was a perfect 90ft. The shark, these Black Tips are supposedly non threatening; I was swimming in average visibility, 40ft and 25ft deep water when I noticed some sweetlips over to my left, which I kept concentrating on while swimming back to shore.
Then after 20 odd seconds I sensed something to my right and only feet away was the shark. It very, very slowly edged away from me before taking off. Also have heard of spearfishers being attacked by Barracuda in Indonesia, one 20 stitches to his side, and a doctor has told me he has treated 4 fishermen in last three years, who were using nets at night, for lost fingers and one his whole hand to Barracuda. This was on Morotai, Eastern Indonesia. No shark attacks reported in decades.
Lucia, Africa, etc. Over 30 years ago my husband and I caught a cheap flight to Cozumel for our honeymoon and we were hooked. So many fish, so astounding. This was over 30 years ago. No pollution, no tourist ships. Safe to rent a moped. I remember a small silver barracuda just cruising past me. We went back a few years ago and had a great time, although we could now afford a private tour boat and things have changed.
I saw groups of barracuda 50 feet below me and just enjoyed them. We went back a couple of years ago and stayed south, so that we were near the deep reefs. We were like kids in disney land. We would dive down and they would split and swirl as if it were ballet. Around and around us. A huge Giant Barracuda. I thought barracuda were silver and slim, but he was very dark brown and his teeth were hanging out out.
He was AT least feet and about away. Head the size of a dinner plate. I froze. A gentle current swished me 1 foot closer. After some discussion we swam like hell to shore, but went out again. This time the opposite direction towards the dock. The silver fish appeared. I told my husband lets leave. I saw the barracuda. He saw the barracuda. I keep thinking of what would have happened it I had taken that last dive through the silver sardines.
I would have run in to him. What an insightful article on both your experience and barracuda in general. I am sorry for your lost finger. Being a recovery room RN in an internationally renown hand surgery center The Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky , it is even more personal!
With the crystal clear water and great snorkel opportunities here, I purchased a high-end snorkel set no fins just this morning at a local dive shop. In the early afternoon, I went out and started doing my thing right behind the condo. I got past a large vegetation bed and kept going. I was in probably ft of water. I had seen a fish with a blue stripe along its back earlier on and to my amazement there were a few around me now, so I started following them.
They were only 5 or 6 inches long, nothing special. Suddenly, they disappeared. It was like someone turned on a light switch. Then, lo and behold, a few feet up off the floor was a Great Barracuda. My estimate was that he was 4 to 5 ft long. I was mortified.
I realized he was beneath me and just out past me, so I immediately began slowly swimming backward to ward shore. Mind you, I know nothing about their behavior, so I was unsure what my fate was going to be. As I moved backward, it never lost sight of me, slowly ascending toward me. My heart began pounding and my breathing intensified.
I was sure if I should be still or make monstrous splashing. Eventually, after a few minutes, it was approx ft from me and following me. I decided to give in and kick with all my might. After what seemed like a damn eternity and my worst stare down ever, he backed off as I got toward more shallow water as the sea floor came closer. What an escort, eh?
Regardless of how many gazillion times people have swam with these creatures and left unscathed, I am going to consider myself very lucky. As a post script, it dawned on me that I was wearing a necklace.
Who knows…maybe the amazing Cayman sun flashed it toward my new friend? Never seen a barracuda but i decided to study them after watching the movie, but heres my story of when i was a lad, it has to do with a much bigger predator… at ten or eleven i decided i wanted to go across the beach, gulf coast of Mississippi on their ferrie ride.
So i was given a chance to go. So i walked to the back side burned my feet badly… the boardwalk burned like coal occasionally i jumped into the cool shade of tree in the sand. I stepped on a rock or something very cuttable, blood must have came out and drawn a creature. So i froze. I really enjoy to swim in the morning or in the night, when the sun does not burn to much.
Today in the morning one started to curious around me: if I moved forward, he moved forward, if I stopped, he stopped. The other ones never did that. I decided to get out and investigate more about this animal. I really dont want to give it up.. I personally had thought on bringing a Rambo knife to feel more secure, but after reading your article this does not seem to be a good idea.
I have read all your recommendations, but I cant stop concerning about it. Can you give me another advise? To cross myself and be in peace perhaps?
Today there was a group of people feeding about one hundred fish. A large barracuda came up and like half of them in 7 seconds. The barracuda was big so I was not willing to go to far from shore and since I knew barracudas were dangerous I told my family that a barrauda was swimming around.
But that same group of people never went back into the water the rest if the day and the fish came from within 2 feet from us. For the past 10 years I have been leaving and working in the Exuma, Bahamas. I am an advance scuba diver. Occasionally I have been going spear fishing with locals but never encountered a negative behavior with a Barracuda. I do respect this unpredictable species. Well, recently I have been diving with my underwater camera in shallow water.
Most of my dives I return to are familiar around this islands. In one particular spot I have been seeing this individual Great Barracuda. He is maybe 3ft long, big and has a very light-silver skin. Right around the area there are other land animals that have been hand-fed in the water on a daily base if not on a hour base during peak season. On my last couple of times I have been in the water the barracuda reminded very casual with no apparent interest. Sometime he would be curious about my camera and will move closer to me.
Maybe he sees his own reflection or my shiny wide-lens dome just confuses him. He would always swim along at the same distance crossing sides every so often. Instantly I turned around and as the bubbles of my kicks dissipated to the surface the barracuda appeared from nowhere steering at me. I remained calm and watched him. He slowly moved to my side so I turned my camera towards me to avoid any other reflections that might instigated him. Or who knows why, is it the full moon?!?
I kept facing him and continued swimming slowly towards my boat. I decided to end the dive then. Now I m remained with a curiosity of what maybe triggered the barracuda to hit forcible my fins. We had just arrived at the beach for the day when this happened. No one else on the beach ever knew what happened unless you happened to talk to one of the people who assisted. We stayed out of the water for awhile after that but never saw anyone raise any warning flags or let anyone know what happened.
People were just allowed to swim as if nothing happened. I understand this. During the second year of life, barracuda move to deeper reef habitats. Juveniles and some adults have been observed in areas that receive high amounts of freshwater input, however adults generally tend to avoid areas of brackish water. Distinctive Features The great barracuda has a slender, streamlined body that is round in the mid-section.
The top of the head between the eyes is nearly flat and the mouth is large, containing many large sharp teeth and a projecting lower jaw. The pectoral fin tips extend to the origin of the pelvic fins. The spinous and soft dorsal fins are widely separated and the double emarginate tail fin exhibits pale tips on each lobe.
Coloration Body coloration of the great barracuda is brownish or bluish gray on the dorsum and upper side, with a greenish cast shading to silvery on the sides and a white belly.
The upper side may have dark bars most often observable when the fish is resting or over a variegated substrate. The black spots on the lower sides of the great barracuda distinguish it from other species of barracuda. The second dorsal fin, anal, and caudal fins are violet to black with whitish tips. Young barracuda exhibit pale reticulations on the dorsum and a dark stripe on either side that breaks into spots as the fish grows.
These patterns are somewhat ephemeral though as juveniles can alter their color patterns to closely match that of their surroundings.
These changes in coloration serve to camouflage the fish from predators as well as well as wary prey. Adults have similar coloration along with a more silvery appearance that is advantageous to a fish that swims near the surface of the water.
Dentition The great barracuda has a large mouth containing two sets of razor-sharp teeth, making it an efficient predator. There is a row of small razor-sharp teeth along the outside of the jaw with a larger set of dagger-like teeth within these. The closely set teeth are flattened and triangular with sharp edges used to tear the flesh of prey. Long needlelike teeth fit into their own holes in the opposing jaw, allowing the great barracuda to close its mouth. This gives its prey little chance of escape.
This fish grabs its prey, swallowing small victims whole while larger prey is cut into pieces to be swallowed separately. Size, Age, and Growth Great barracuda are large fish.
The record for a hook and line caught great barracuda is 1. Any barracuda over 4. Based on scale analysis of large specimens, great barracuda have a lifespan of at least 14 years. Sexual maturity is reached at a length of about 23 inches 60 cm.
At this size, males are typically about two years and females close to four years of age. Food Habits Great barracudas feed on an array of prey including fishes such as jacks, grunts, groupers, snappers, small tunas, mullets, killifishes, herrings, and anchovies.
Barracudas have a large gape and very sharp teeth, enabling them to feed on large fishes by chopping them in half. An opportunistic predator, great barracuda feed throughout the water column. Generally a diurnal fish, great barracuda locate their prey largely by sight.
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