Today on this Fun Fact post I’m going to talk about the Flying Fish. The pectoral fins of these fishes are larger than normal and similar to wings. They use these pectoral fins to “fly” outside the water and these flights are a defense mechanism to help them to escape the predators, like the swordfish, mackerel, tuna, dolphinfish and marine birds. They feed on various food, including plankton.
Flying Fish. Source: National Geographic, 2017.
So, how do they fly?
They start to gain velocity underwater, then make an angle upwards to break the surface and start to beat their tail very rapidly on the water while they’re still on the water, only afterwards they take off, being able to reach 1 m in high. If you wish to see how this defence mechanism works, you can watch this video, click here
Hope you enjoyed this post!
