UC San Diego Library – Scripps Digital Collection

The California barracuda, Sphyraena argentea, inhabits eastern Pacific coastal waters from Magdalena Bay, Baja California, to Prince William Sound, Alaska. It has played a significant role in the growth and development of California's fishing industries. Exploited primarily between Point Conception, California, and San Quintin, Baja California, these long, slender, silvery cylinders of animated protein figured prominently in the development of the purse seine, were the object of an International Fisheries Commission Study, and are one of the mainstays of southern California's sportfishing industry.