Credit: Illustration by Diane Rome Peebles
Family Sphyraenidae
Description: gray, with a greenish cast
above, whitish below; many irregular, small black blotches on lower
side; 18 to 22 diagonal dark bars on upper side (not always evident);
caudal fin dark with white tips; 75 to 87 lateral line scales; no
fleshy tip on jaw
Young: dark stripe on side; stripe breaks into dark squarish blotches as fish grows
Size: to 2 meters (6 feet) and 48 kilograms (106 pounds); reports of larger fish unverified
Where found: young live in inshore seagrass beds; adults range from inshore channels to open ocean
Remarks:
most attacks on people have occurred when they were wading or swimming
in turbid water while wearing bright objects, attempting to spear a
barracuda, or carrying speared fish; flesh of smaller fish apparently
not poisonous, but larger fish sometimes very toxic due to ciguatera;
no safe, reliable way of recognizing toxic fish
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