Barracuda

Description:

Locally known as 'Djustrica', these are juvenile Barracudas, one of the three species occurring in Adriatic sea. To my surprise, I've frequently observed these close to shores on one of Dubrovnik riviera popular beaches. I've never seen them in shoals, but always around other fish. All those I saw were between 10 and 15 cm in length, long and narrow body resembling Garfish somewhat. Darker rosy-grey above, whitish below with a long thin horizontal stripe along the sides.

Habitat:

This summer I spotted these beauties always at same area, in shallow waters close to shores, on a popular beaches in a village of Dubrovnik riviera (Cavtat). The depth in this zone is between 0,5m up to 3m, and then descending sharply down to 10m. The sea bottom here is rocky, creating many crevasses and tunnels, and rocks are abundantly covered in algae. In those deeper waters, there are some large colonies of sea grass.

Notes:

This summer, to my surprise, I discovered that three species of Barracuda occur in Adriatic sea, namely: Yellowstripe (S. chrysotaenia), European (S. sphyraena) and Yellowmouth barracuda (S. viridensis), so these babies belong to one of them. I say to my surprise, I always linked them to other warmer seas...