Flying fish (Video 20/5/2008)

Imagine you live in ancient Britain. A sailor friend tells you tall tales about fish that flies above the water instead of swimming... Tall tales of a drunken sailor, you think...

Often the truth is stranger than fiction, as this Japanese video shows us.



Incidentally this is also the longest recorded flight of one of these fish. 45 seconds... Fish that fly? Are hidden lake monsters, mystic bi-pedals and living dinosaurs really that far-fetched?

We ge tthem down here in the Gulf. My uncle used to run a charter boat, and occasionally we'd go out on over night fishing trips. Occasionaly they'd manage to glibe over the sides of the boat, and we'd have baot the next morning. Still see them occasionaly on the water.
See, their long side fins allow them to jump and glde over the water when somethings chasing them. A few seconds may not seem like much, but it can be enough to loose the guy chasing you.
Always made me wonder if there's a pllanet out there that completly skipped animals evolving to land and going to the sky first.

Another evolutionary step perhaps, from the sea straight into the sky.
Found this footage, may have been seen before but still quite interesting,even if a little implausible!
uk.youtube.com...

reply to post by Gemwolf


Wow - is this for real? Or is it a bird of some kind? Amazing, and if true, it goes some way towards illustrating the sheer versatality of evolutionary genetics. Still pretty awed by this one. Good find...

J.

reply to post by jimbo999


Yeah, it's a real fish, cjeck Wiki if you want to, we used to pull them out of my uncles boat when we whent fishing overnight out in the Gulf of Mexico. Never ate one, but they were pretty good bait, since they generally were dead before we could toss them back. The side of the boat was at least three or more feet above water, so it's impressive they were able to get in. I still remember when I was a kid and seeing something chase a school of them into the air.

Now, if we can come up with a flying bun with sesame seeds, I'm thinkin' we're looking at a flying McFish sandwich.

(Flying french fries not included.)

far from rare. en.wikipedia.org...

we saw tons of flying critters when we were braving the rough seas out of Cancun.

For the sushi eaters, flying fish roe is used quite a bit and it is most tasty.

Yeah in LA you can get on a boat out near Catalina Island around dusk and they shine bright sodium lights onto the water. The flying fish come out in schools of 3-10 at a time but usually they only fly maybe 15-45 feet. but they are real fast when they are doing it. pretty neat to see. I think they like warmer water.

Yes, no big news to me, but they are true amazing animals.

I learnt to sail 2 years ago in a warm fresh/salt water lagoon on the coast of Mozambique along these fish

However they flew in big schools, probably 20, it was difficult to count they jumped many meters in a shot and I could only see their skin reflection speeding through.

edit: looks like there are alot of species here's the one I saw www.eol.org...


[edit on 31-5-2008 by kingsnake]