Barracuda

Photo: Christian Amador Da Silva · © all rights reserved

Great barracuda patrol East Wall as solitary hunters, typically holding station in mid-water a few metres off the wall face and using the current to their advantage as they ambush smaller fish. Their chrome-silver bodies and distinctive underbite present an imposing profile, and individuals at Netrani have been recorded following divers for extended periods — a hunting strategy that uses large moving objects to flush prey from cover. Schools of small barracuda — distinct from the solitary great barracuda — also sweep past the wall during November through February, sometimes forming the characteristic tornado formation visible from below.