In point of size the barracuda is not a "great fish," the average
weight being from six to twelve pounds and, while many heavier ones
have been caught, those over fifty pounds are rare. The body is slender
and varies in length from three feet for the smaller to four or five feet for
the larger. It is light-gray or almond-green above with sides pink-tinted
and a belly of egg-shell white. Some have irregular black spots on their
sides. (1 p. 200)

Because of its stream-lined build, the barracuda has the speed of
a bullet. One moment it may be resting near the ocean bottom as
motionless as the shells and corals in the dim sea-filtered sunlight. Then,
following a blue of swirling water, it disappears as suddenly and
completely as does the moisture-film of a bursting soap bubble. A
barracuda, on the other hand, can steal about among the submerged
peaks and passes of his ocean home with a furtive grace unsurpassed in
the piscine world. (1 p. 200)

In spite of its dainty sinuousness and demure color the barracuda is
a rapacious killer; evil, grim, and ugly. The long head ends in pointed jaws
set with needle-like dog teeth protected by tough, heavy lips. (1 p. 200)
Nothing that moves is safe from the barracuda. It attacks any
sort of bait, even a white rag, with blind fury. No unwary fish escapes
its darting lunge. Though the barracuda is surfeited by an unusually
heavy gorging of food, it will savagely destroy anything,