Do flying fish really fly?
Flying fish don’t really fly, but they do glide through the air. Flying fish have special fins. These are winglike and tough. When the fish is in the air, it can rotate these like propellers. Flying fish “fly” to get away from predators. To become airborne, the fish must reach the surface an pick up a lot of speed. Flying fish will swim to the surface of the water at 15 mph. Then it will swim there, going faster and faster, until it reaches 40 mph (as fast as a car!). When the flying fish picks up enough speed, it will glide out of the water and away from its predator! Flying fish can stay in the air for 20 seconds and can travel as much as 600 ft. Some have even been known to land on ship decks!
They glide, the glides are usually up to 30-50 metres in length, but some have been observed soaring for hundreds of metres using the updraft on the leading edges of waves. To prepare for a glide, the fish swim rapidly close to the surface of the water, with their fins close to the body. As they leave the water, they spread their fins,eventually, even the tail leaves the water and the fish are airborne. They do not flap their “wings”. In gliding, flyingfish can almost double their speed, reaching speeds up to 60 km/h.
