Thyrsites atun (Euphrasén, 1791), the snoek, is a long, thin species of snake mackerel found in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere, and a popular food fish in South Africa, particularly along the west and southwest coast. This fish can reach a length of SL though most do not exceed SL. The maximum recorded weight for this species is . It is very important to commercial fisheries and is also a popular game fish. It is currently the only known member of its genus. It is also known in Australasia as barracouta though it is not closely related to the barracuda. It is found near continental shelves or around islands and feeds on crustaceans, cephalopods and small fish like anchovy and pilchard. This species will form schools near the bottom or midwater; sometimes even near the surface at night. It prefers sea water temperature between . It is found off the coast of Namibia and the coast of the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa, western and southern Australian waters especially Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania, and New Zealand. It was originally called the "" (Sea Snoek) by Dutch colonists who arrived in the Cape in 1652. It is said to have reminded them of the freshwater pike (or ) they found at home in the Netherlands. The snoek is widely distributed in the colder waters in the Southern Hemisphere. It is found from Moçâmedes in Angola to Mossel Bay in South Africa, off Tristan da Cunha in the mid southern Atlantic and off Western Australia, where it is called the barracouta, off Chile and Argentina (where it is called the ). Bluish-black on top with a silver belly, the snoek grows to over a metre in length. Contains an anticoagulant in its bite. As food It is sold fresh, smoked, canned and frozen. It can be cooked by frying, broiling, baking and it can also be microwaved. It is also made and eaten as fishcakes in regions such as Japan. It is prepared most often by grilling, frying or smoking. Snoek is oily, extremely bony (although the bones are large and easily removed from the cooked fish) and has very fine scales which are almost undetectable, making it unnecessary to scale the fish while cleaning. Snoek has a very distinctive taste. In South Africa, snoek is caught and consumed along the west and southwestern coastal parts