Flying Fish Don Really Fly – Or Do They?
We’ve all heard it so many times that it’s just one of those things that’s obviously true. But how many of us have actually seen a flying fish and watched what they do? I’ve watched them many times. I used to see them all the time when I was in the U.S. Navy and sailing the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and especially the South China Sea. From what I’ve observed, I think that “obviously true” assessment doesn’t do justice to the behavior and abilities of the flying fish. Watch them for a while, and you will see that they don’t “just glide.” For one thing, they have considerable control of their direction and flight attitude. They can, to some extent, choose where they will reenter the water. They can steer around breaking whitecaps or floating debris. They can cut their flight short and descend sharply to the water when they want to. More remarkably, they can, and in fact they do more often than not, gain power, airspeed, and altitude without reentering the water.
