Yellowmouth Barracuda
(Sphyraena viridensis)

Sphyraena viridensis, the yellowmouth barracuda or yellow barracuda is a predatory ray finned fish from the family Sphyraenidae, the barracudas, which is found in the warmer waters of the western Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. It is often confused with the European barracuda Sphyraena sphyraena.

Description
Sphyraena viridensis has a long, fusiform body with a long, streamlined pointed snout which has a long mouth lined with two rows of sharp, fang-like teeth and a jutting lower jaw. There are no scales on the preoperculum, unlike S. sphyraena which has scales on both the anterior and posterior margins of the preoperculum. There are numerous transverse dark bars on the dorsum and these are longer, extending below the lateral line, towards the head while in S. sphyraena they do not extend to the lateral line.

Generally, the colouration is a counter-shaded dark above, silvery below and the barring fades on dead specimens. Juveniles are described as being dark yellow or greenish in colour. S. viridensis averages smaller than S. sphyraena growing to a standard length of 65 cm, although the average length is 35–40 cm but specimens up to 114.5 cm have been caught of the Azores. The rod caught record is 10.2 kg which was caught off Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in 2007.

Distribution
The exact distribution of Sphyraena viridensis is unclear because of confusion with S. sphyraena. It occurs in the eastern central Atlantic around the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde Islands, and the Canary Islands and has been recorded in the eastern Mediterranean off Lebanon. It has also been recorded in the Mediterranean in the Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, off Israel, Algeria, Corsica and Sicily.