When my husband and I were sailing, we often saw flying fish leaping out of the water as they tried to escape from predators.
When there were storms, we sometimes found waves had thrown flying fish onto the deck.
One morning when the sea was nice and calm, I was very surprised to discover one on the deck. He must have been trying to escape a predator and landed on the boat by accident.
About Flying Fish
Scientific Name
Habitat
Size:
Weight:
Diet:
Predators:
Exocoetidae
Warm ocean waters.
Between 15cm and 51cm long
about a kilogram
Plankton, Crustaceans and fish
Larger fish like marlin, swordfish and tuna, plus squid, porpoises, birds, and people.
Flying fish have fins that look like wings. These fins help them fly. they want to fly, they flick their tails from side to side very fast. This helps them swim very fast – just like a plane gets faster when it takes off.
When the fish are swimming fast enough they leave the water. They don’t flap their wings like a bird. They use them to glide.
When a flying fish gets close to the water again, it can flap its tail and skim across the water instead of going back into the sea – this is called taxiing.
Fun Facts
The fastest speed that a flying fish can go is about 56km per hour.
Some flying fish can leap as high as about 1 metre out of the water.
Some flying fish can glide for about 2 metres.
By gliding and taxiing, some fish can fly about 4 metres.
