Barracuda (Sphyraena viridensis) — spearfishing in Morocco

01 Telling it apart

A very long, slim, silver fish with a pointed head, a projecting lower jaw, large visible fang-like teeth, and two short dorsals set far apart. The back is dark grey-green with a series of dark bars that reach below the lateral line on the front half of the body. The tail is forked and the whole fish is built like a spear.

At distance it is a school of silver bars hanging motionless at midwater, all facing the same way, turning together. Close up the barred flank, the teeth and the yellowish inside of the mouth are the tells.

The smaller European barracuda has scales on the cheek and bars that stop at the lateral line; this one has a bare cheek and bars that cross it.

02 Habitat

The water column over rock: points, walls, pinnacles, the outside of a reef, and the open water near them. It schools at midwater by day, often over a specific rock it returns to, and disperses to hunt at dusk.

It is a fish of clear warm water, and on the Mediterranean side it is a summer fish, arriving with the warmth and leaving in the cold.

Juveniles and small adults form the large schools; big fish are alone or in small groups, deeper.

03 Where to find it in Morocco

The Mediterranean coast in summer and autumn, on every rocky point from Saïdia to Tangier; the Atlantic north to Agadir in smaller numbers, more in warm years.

The species was only separated from the European barracuda in the 1990s, so older Moroccan records do not distinguish them. The maturity figure is from the Azores, the nearest Atlantic study.

04 Spawning

Summer, from around May to August, offshore in open water. The schools that gather on the points in early summer are pre-spawning aggregations.

Growth is fast in the first years; a metre fish is old.

05 Behaviour

Curious and unhurried. A school holds at midwater and lets a diver come close, watching; it moves off slowly and re-forms nearby rather than bolting. Big solitary fish are warier and keep more distance.

It hunts small fish with a burst of speed from a standstill, and it is attracted to flash, which is what its prey looks like.

It is not aggressive to divers. The rare bite is a mistake made at a flashing object in murky water, usually on a hand holding a shiny fish.

How you approach it

Ambush at midwater over a point where a school holds. Hang still at their depth and let the school drift onto you; it will.
Pick a fish on the near edge of the school and aim behind the head. The body is thin and a shot too far back tears out.
A 100 to 120 cm gun. The fish is not heavy, but the range is real and the target is narrow.
For a big solitary fish, wait deeper and longer: it comes in after the school has passed.
Grip it by the tail wrist and dispatch it before handling the head. The teeth cut deep.

What people get wrong

01 That it attacks divers. It does not; the rare bite is at a flashing object in murky water.
02 That every barracuda is the same species. Two share this coast; the big one has a bare cheek and bars that cross the lateral line.
03 That a school that lets you close is easy. The fish you want is the big solitary one behind it, and that one is wary.

Do not confuse it with

The species this one is taken for, and what tells them apart.

European barracuda, Sphyraena sphyraena — smaller, with scales on the cheek and bars that stop at the lateral line; the same water.
Garfish, Belone belone — a long green-boned needlefish with a beak of a mouth, at the surface, far thinner.
Bluefish, Pomatomus saltatrix — thick-shouldered, with a big head and flat cutting teeth, in fast packs rather than still schools.