Yellowmouth Barracuda - Sphyraena viridensis - Face to Face with the School

A dense school of Yellowmouth Barracuda holds close to the Um El Faroud wreck in Malta, with several fish passing almost directly in front of the camera.

The Yellowmouth Barracuda (Sphyraena viridensis) has a long, slender and fusiform body with a pointed hydrodynamic snout, elongated mouth and projecting lower jaw armed with sharp canine-like teeth. Its upper body is generally bluish-grey to greenish and becomes paler below, while numerous distinctive dark vertical bars cross the upper flanks and extend below the lateral line on the anterior part of the body. The two dorsal fins are widely separated and the deeply forked tail provides powerful propulsion for rapid swimming. Yellowmouth Barracuda are pelagic predators that feed primarily on fishes, together with cephalopods and crustaceans. Adults may occur alone but frequently gather into schools around rocky reefs, drop-offs and underwater structures, sometimes appearing almost motionless as they hold position in the current. The species occurs throughout the Mediterranean and neighbouring eastern Atlantic and may be encountered from shallow water to more than 100 metres depth. This photograph captures an exceptionally close encounter with a dense school holding beside the Um El Faroud wreck in Malta, with several barracudas filling the foreground and revealing their characteristic striped flanks in remarkable detail.