UNDER THE SEA

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about 

Barracuda Facts

1. Barracudas are ferocious ambush predators

With a slim, torpedo-like body shape and crescent-shaped tail fins, barracudas are built for short bursts of speed. They can accelerate from a standstill to their top speed of 36 miles per hour (58 kph) in a blink of an eye, closing the distance and seizing their prey before it even has time to react.

2. The Largest barracuda caught was over 6 feet in length

Thomas Gibson from the USA caught a Guinean barracuda weighing 46.40 kilograms (102 pounds 4 ounces) which measured around 2 metres (6 feet 6 inches) on 14 February 2013 in Angola.

3. They can hide in plain sight

Barracudas are countershaded; with darker colours on the top half of their bodies and lighter shades on their bellies, they are camouflaged against both the ocean below them and the surface above.

Their silvered flanks help to conceal them further, and their snake-like bodies create an extremely small profile when viewed head-on; from the point of view of their prey, the barracuda is virtually invisible as it approaches.

4. They are visual hunters

Barracudas have excellent eyesight, and are drawn to the silvery flashes and sudden movements made by their prey.

They are able to accurately track a single fast-moving fish in a school of hundreds during the chase, and land their strikes with deadly precision.

5. Some species are nocturnal specialists

A few species including the sawtooth barracuda (S. putnamae) and yellowmouth barracuda (S. viridensis) are specially adapted for night-time hunting.

Their extra-large, highly sensitive eyes allow them to see their prey clearly in the darkness, when their hapless targets are at a significant disadvantage. 

6. Barracudas aren’t fussy eaters

The only real limitation to what a barracuda sees as food is size, and they are more than capable of tackling prey almost as large as themselves.

Little fish are not safe either; even if they are not worth the energy to actively hunt, barracudas will happily snap up any small fry that make the mistake of straying into the danger zone.

7. Their jaws are lethal weapons

Barracudas are equipped with powerful jaw muscles and impressive sets of specialised cutting and impaling teeth.

Their bite produces huge amounts of shearing force, and when tackling prey that is too large to swallow in one go they simply bite it in half.

The fish of choice are often grunts, snappers, small tunas, herrings, groupers and more.

8. They have a unique and efficient hunting strategy

Unlike many other piscivorous fish which rely on sudden, powerful suction to capture food, barracudas have the ability to bite right through their prey.

Their hunting strategy, fittingly known as ram-biting, allows them to tackle prey that is too large to gulp down in one go; this massively increases the amount of energy they can gain from each attack compared to suction-feeding predators of a similar size.

9. Some of their teeth are angled backwards

This prevents fish from slipping out of their mouth, allowing them to hold and bite them!

10. Barracudas have been known to attack humans

Barracudas regularly mistake scuba divers for large predators and follow them around in the hopes that they will flush out prey.

This behaviour, combined with their sensitivity to silvery flashes and quick movements, has occasionally caused the larger species to attack and even kill human divers, especially in water with lower visibility.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking