fishydreams

John Langridge has been catching some barracuda in the Indian Ocean these last few days. They are creatures of such menace that they have carved a certain reputation for themselves.

I have never caught barracuda myself but I did have the chance to see one firsthand, in its own element, back in the days when I did a lot of scuba diving. We were in the Red Sea and I was partnered with the divemaster guy on a “livaboard” dive boat. We had spent some time suspended just off a vertical rock face that plummeted into the abyss when the divemaster fella beckoned for me to join him in the open water.

This is really a strange experience. Once the structure of the underwater cliff face had faded from view we found ourselves suspended in an infinity of blue pierced above us by thrusting swords of sunlight and grading imperceptibly into deep turquoise. We were drifting at a depth of, perhaps 15 metres or so. I wondered initially why I had been guided away from the drop off we had been exploring but within minutes I began to understand. First up and quite literally “out of the blue” came a sailfish rather like the ones John has been catching. This was just breathtaking and it came within perhaps 20 feet of us before gliding effortlessly with a couple of casual strokes of its great scythe tail.

After that came a barracuda. It was a big one and it had absolutely no fear of us. It might have circled us 3 or 4 times eyeing us up as it did so. I knew better than to consider it a threat but it was hard avoid a feeling of unease when looking at something so supremely well-adapted to a predatory lifestyle in open water. The body is elongated and slender and the dorsal and anal fins are set far back to provide lightning acceleration but it is, of course the head with protruding teeth that really draw the eye.

It is common to overestimate the size of things seen underwater because of the magnifying effect of light refracting from water to air in the facemask, but it seemed to me that the fish might have been about the same length as my diving companion who was somewhere between 5 and 6 feet.

This all happened around 20 years ago and those two beautiful fish just appearing momentarily and vanishing again into the open sea are among the many things that I will never forget.

This is one of John´s sailfish. John shows a lot of respect for the fish he catches and I´m sure that after a “trophy shot” it will be released again.

Here is just a part of a trophy shot

There are 28 species of barracuda and they are found in tropical and sub-tropical waters worldwide. This one was taken by John Langridge in the Indian Ocean.