Divefree

Fish

Great Barracuda

Sphyraena barracuda

The largest of the barracudas, a torpedo-shaped ambush predator armed with a jaw of compressed, dagger-like teeth.

Also known as groot barrakuda

Great Barracuda
Photo: Zane Libke · CC BY-NC 4.0
Habitat
Reefs and open coastal water, tropical seas

The great barracuda is a powerful open-water hunter found through warm seas worldwide. Its teeth are compressed, erect and set edge to edge, and the lower jaw ends in a slight fleshy knob, the tools of a fish that takes prey in short, explosive rushes.

Adults show a two- or four-lobed tail and a flattened space between the eyes. It holds around reefs, drop-offs and the edges of open water, where divers often meet curious individuals hanging motionless in the current.