Barracuda @ Ft. Wetherill last night

[mstudley]

Yup... believe it or not Chris (RIOceanographer) and I were ending a dive last night at Ft. Wetherill (boat ramp side) and came across a small fish that neither of us could ID. Chris did some research and came up with this:

Yup, it was a barracuda. Specifically it was a northern sennet, aka
northern barracuda (Sphyraena borealis). Believe it or not, it is not
a tropical. It is actually a northern species of barracuda that
normally lives in deeper water offshore, but apparently the young
ones are commonly seen in coastal waters in southern New England
during the summer. It is actually the same genus as the tropical
barracuda. Cool eh?
​

Pretty cool indeed. One of those times I wish I had a housing for my camera. Hope I'm not stealing anyones thunder.....

In the attached sketch, it's the one on the bottom.

 

[bikeflip22]

thats really cool

 

[RIOceanographer]

Pretty cool indeed. One of those times I wish I had a housing for my camera. Hope I'm not stealing anyones thunder.....

Ahhh man.... I was just coming online to report that.....

 

[mstudley]

Ahhh man.... I was just coming online to report that.....

I knew it! Sorry!

 

[gstroupe]

Ahhh man.... I was just coming online to report that.....

Shoudn't have slept in

That's really cool guys! Any tropical's yet?

 

[RIOceanographer]

Shoudn't have slept in

That's really cool guys! Any tropical's yet?

Yes, I did see a short big-eye:

http://www.gma.org/fogm/Pseudopriacanthus_altus.htm

 

[ScubaSarus]

Well things are getting interesting in those coves. Time for some shallow diving along the edges.

 

[PeaceDog]

Believe it or not, my buddy and I are absolutely convinced we saw some version of a tropical at Lane's Cove three weeks ago, right at dusk. It was swimming in amongst a school of cunner. Looked quite a bit like some version of a hatchet fish, but I couldn't be sure.

Boy, it's been a weird diving summer.

Congrats on the sennet, boys. Fair play to you.

 

[Gidds]

I saw other people with tropicals at Ft. Wetherill last weekend and I saw two puffers. Hey guys I heard at the NEADC meeting Wed. that there recently was a MONSTER torpedo ray at Ft. Wetherill, anybody see him?
I also heard something about large jellies *yuck* anybody see those?
I'm going out there tomarrow if the weather isn't gross.

 

[dbg40]

Excellent!! Im going on laborday sunday with a bunch of people. Sounds like it's getting good there! Hope the crowd is not too big. What can I expect (hope) to see?