Fish of The Week

Last Update : Sunday 14 October, 2001 12:56 PM




		Illust : Anuwat Saisaeng

Great Barracuda



Scientific name	Sphyraena barracuda
Common name	Great Barracuda
Size	2 meters
Dispersion	Gulf of Thailand, Andaman Sea
Area found	Pelagic fish, looking for food near the floor.
Depth	1 – 100 meters
Feed on	Animals, especially, fishes.
Situation	Found around the islands and underwater rock piles. Quantity is getting smaller.
Conservation	Have been caught a lot. Fishing, angling in the preservation area must be strictly abstained.
Fish Tip	Look at his eyes. You will be shivered.

          Great barracuda…the Fish of this Week is my own request because I have just recently confronted him at Red Rock. Not one, but more than 20 of them. Although not the largest barracuda I have met, they are the largest school of barracuda I have ever met in the Thai Sea.

          Great barracuda can cause shivering every time I see him. There is a legend that barracuda is ruthless and brutal. But in fact, they do not attack because they want to eat us. I have heard of divers being crashed into, not even one being bitten (except in the novel, which does not concern us).

          The problem is that barracuda fish has a villain look. Great barracuda is the forefront of villains, with fangs in the mouth. Worst of all is the look in his eyes. It is not trustworthy at all.

          Barracuda is skeptical. I once went diving at Chumporn where there was a barracuda fish swimming after me from the beginning of the dive till the end. I was young then and a little scared. After meeting more of them, I become familiar.

          Barracuda can simply be divided into 3 types. Yellow barracuda can often be found in the Gulf of Thailand, especially at Chumporn, Samui Island, Pa-Ngan Island, Tao Island. Normally there are plenty of them in Chumporn more than other places. A school of hundreds used to be found. This fish is about 1.5 feet long. The body is slim, more like Long tom. I have been able to take his photograph recently. If the photo is sharp, I will present it to you.

          Black barracuda is about 1 meter long, usually lives in a group of ten to a hundred. They like to swim in circle around divers. I used to meet them often. Now, there are noticeably less than before. At Richeliu or Red Rock, where they have been met in abundance, cannot be found either. May be most of them have become ‘Tom Yam’ (a Thai dish).

          Great barracuda that you see in this illustration is the largest and most fearful among all three. In fact they are not as ferocious as we think. In the gulf of Thailand, we usually meet one at a time, or three to four at the most. In the Andaman Sea, some time they come in school, like what I have met at Red Rock. They are still there now, certainly.

          Once I met one great barracuda at Richeliu Rock during the El Nino occurrence. I still cannot get over his size. He kept himself afloat in the middle of the water like a log, did not stir even when I went closer. He just looked into my eyes. I did not take his photograph because I did not dare, frankly. He was so big and did not swim away, rather kept afloat. I was afraid that the light flashing into his eyes when I clicked the shutter would make him attack. Although the probability is very small or almost nil, I was afraid.

          A group of barracuda would keep afloat and still together in the daytime. At night the fish goes out to look for food alone. They are fed on sleeping fish that are not hiding properly. I witnessed one barracuda taking parrot fish as food. He swam by the sleeping parrot fish and took two bites. The body was gone in the first bite, head and tail in the second. The whole process of demolishing a foot long parrot fish took 15 seconds. Imagine how sharp the teeth were!

          There are more stories about barracuda. But Fish of the Week has to limit it. Just in case we publish a book, compiling issues of this column, I would still have something to write about. Otherwise no one would buy it.

          Photograph of barracuda has not been published yet. Please wait for awhile. We promise to arrange for a new set of wallpaper and e-card next week.

          Bye…bye…Barracuda.

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