Sphyraena sphyraena (Linnaeus, 1758)

Edwards, A. J., Gill, A. C. & Abohweyere, P. O., 2003, A revision of F. R. Irvine’s Ghanaian marine fishes in the collections of The Natural History Museum, London, Journal of Natural History 37 (18), pp. 2213-2267 : 2255

Sphyraena sphyraena (Linnaeus, 1758)

Reference material. Winneba, March 1933 (Irvine 181)— BMNH 1934.10 .12.20 (one: ca 350 mm SL); Accra, September 1938 (Irvine 339)— BMNH 2001.5 .2.30 (one: 304 mm SL) .

Distribution. Madeira, Canaries, Cape Verde Islands and coast of West Africa from Morocco to Angola. Also occurs in the Mediterranean and northwards to the Bay of Biscay, and in the western Atlantic (Quéro et al., 1990).

A barracuda seen by Irvine, which was 180 cm in length and which he thought might have been this species, was likely to have been Sphyraena afra Peters, 1844 , but could have been the Great barracuda, S. barracuda (Walbaum, 1792) , which is uncommon in the area. Sphyraena sphyraena is only reported to a maximum length of 165 cm.