Great Barracuda ; Picuda 



Great Barracuda ; Picuda 



SphyrcBna barracuda (Walbaum) 



The great barracuda is found from Brazil northward through 

 the West Indies to Pensacola, Charleston and the Bermudas. It 

 is common in the tropics and is the largest and most voracious 

 of the genus, reaching a length of 6 feet. It is as fierce as a 

 shark and is sometimes very dangerous to bathers. This fish is 

 occasionally taken with hook and line at Key West where it 

 has some value as a food-fish. Its flesh has been reputed 

 poisonous and at times its sale in the Cuban markets has been 

 forbidden. But as a number of the best food-fishes of the West 

 Indies have at one time or another been tabooed by Cuban law, 

 this can not be regarded as conclusive evidence that the flesh 

 of this fish is really unwholesome. 



Colour, silvery, darker above; side in young with about lo 

 dark blotches which break up and disappear with age; some inky 

 spots, usually on posterior part of body, very conspicuous in 

 both old and young; soft dorsal, anal and ventral fins black, ex- 

 cept on margins; pectoral plain, except upper margin which is 

 black; fins of young nearly plain. 



Another species, S. ensis, occurs in the Gulf of California and 

 southward to Panama. It is rather common, reaches a length of 

 2 feet, and is used as food. It may be readily distinguished 

 from the only other species known from the west coast (the 

 California barracuda) by its larger scales, which are no to 130 

 in lateral line, instead of 166 in the latter. 



A third species (S. gnachancho), called guachanche or gua- 

 chanche pelon, has about the same distribution as the great 

 barracuda but is occasionally found as far north as Woods 

 Hole. It is a slender species, reaching 2 feet in length, and is 

 not uncommon in the tropics. From S. barracuda, it may be 



259 



