''Sphyraena sphyraena'', also known as the European barracuda or Mediterranean barracuda, is a ray-finned predatory fish of the Mediterranean basin and the warmer waters of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

Description

''Sphyraena sphyraena'' has a long, compressed body with a circular cross-section covered with small,

cycloid In geometry, a cycloid is the curve traced by a point on a circle as it Rolling, rolls along a Line (geometry), straight line without slipping. A cycloid is a specific form of trochoid and is an example of a roulette (curve), roulette, a curve g ...

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

. It has a large mouth with an underbite, lined with prominent sharp teeth. It is dark above and silvery below, and in some freshly-caught specimens there is a yellow band parallel to the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelia ...

. It has 20 or 22 dark transverse bands on the back which do not reach the flanks. The anterior

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

has 5 spiny rays, and the posterior has a single spiny ray and 9 soft rays. It has relatively small

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s, and the pelvic fins are directly below the forwardmost point of the first dorsal fin; The

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

has a one spiny ray and 9 soft rays. ''S. sphyraena'' has scales covering both the anterior and posterior margins of the preoperculum, whereas in '' Sphyraena viridensis'' both margins have no scales. They are normally around in length and weigh , but there are records of fish long and reaching weights of at least . It is the largest species of barracuda in the Mediterranean.

Distribution

In the Eastern Atlantic ''Sphyraena sphyraena'' is found from the

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in the north through the

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and the

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to Mossamedes,

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in the south and is found off

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and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in the western Atlantic. It is also found throughout the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

Sea and the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

. It has been found as far north as

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in the

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Ecology

''Sphyraena sphyraena'' is normally a

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

species found high in the water column, but smaller fish often found near bottom of the water column. The main food is other fish but sometimes includes

cephalopods A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan Taxonomic rank, class Cephalopoda (Greek language, Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral symm ...

and

crustacea Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

ns. They are a social species and large groups of ''Sphyraena sphyraena'' numbering between ten and two hundred have been recorded. Reproduction occurs between May and August and the female can lay up to 300,000 eggs. The

copepod Copepods (; meaning 'oar-feet') are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthos, benthic (living on the sedimen ...

'' Bomolochus unicirrus'' is known to be an ectoparasite of ''S. sphyraena''.

Fisheries

It is caught in some quantities by commercial fisheries and it is an important game fish. A decline in mean size and in the range of sizes caught has been noted in the eastern and southern Mediterranean and this may be an indication of over exploitation. Juvenile ''S. sphyraena'' are taken as bycatch in fisheries for small

forage fish Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small pelagic fish that feed on planktons (i.e. planktivores) and other small aquatic organisms (e.g. krill). They are in turn preyed upon by various predators including larger fish, seabirds ...

, such as sardines and anchovies, while the rather sedentary adults are vulnerable to other fishing pressures, including spearfishing. Barracuda

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1117923 Fish of Europe Game fish Sphyraenidae Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus