Great Barracuda - Marine life in El Nido
The great barracuda is the most impressive of his kind. Those incredible predators have a streamlined body allowing them to swim at over 35 km/h and an intimidating row of ragged teeth.
Marine Life in El Nido - Great Barracuda
Marine Life in El Nido. The Great Barracuda are well known for their sharp teeth and pointed head, great barracudas can grow up to 2 meters! They are able to swim at over 35 km/h. Bold and curious, barracudas have the creepy habit of following scuba divers around. Because they feed on silvery fish such as jacks, groupers, small tunas, we tend to believe that they blindly attack any shiny object such as regulator or dive computer. But it is wrong. Many divers have proven it by dangling shiny objects in-front of them. They rarely even approach. Most of the attacks are on divers who were spearfishing. They try to deny the barracuda from taking away their catch. When compared to attacks by other large predators there are only few documented barracuda attacks.
Common Name: Barracuda
Genus: Sphyraena
Diet: Carnivore
Size: from 0.5m to 2m
Weight: Up to 35 kg
Life Span: 10-15 years
Great Barracuda - A great predator
The great barracuda feeds on an array of prey. Their streamlined body is designed for speed and it may be as fast as 40 km/h… They have a large gape and very sharp teeth. It enables them to feed on large fishes by chopping them in half and teeth facing forward and backward make almost impossible for fish to escape from their mouths. As an opportunistic predator, great barracuda feed throughout the water column. Generally a diurnal fish, they their prey largely by sight. They hunt by method is called “ram feeding” cruising slow and watchful. Prey mainly consists of other fish–including smaller barracudas–though squid, octopus, shrimp and other marine organisms are sometimes taken.
Great Barracuda - Where can we see them in El Nido?
Although they are at times found up to 100m depth, great barracuda commonly occur in nearshore coral reefs, seagrasses, and mangroves such as in Bacuit Bay? They may also reside in the open ocean, living near the surface. Barracudas tend to be solitary but are sometimes found in small aggregations over reefs. Here in El Nido, they are often spotted in South Miniloc and Helicopter island.
South Miniloc
Helicopter
North Rock
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