• Cap@kbin.melroy.org
    97·
    3 months ago

    There is a species of flying fish in the northwest Pacific region called Boeing interruptus that struggles to get airborne.

  • Nomecks@lemmy.caEnglish
    48·
    3 months ago

    Seeing these in choppy seas is interesting. You’ll see a fish fly straight out the side of one wave, fly 100 feet through the air and right back into the side of another wave. Super unnatural looking.

  • SuspiciousCatThing@pawb.socialEnglish
    351·
    3 months ago

    I don’t think I ever processed that these are real and would have wings. It doesn’t seem right. I don’t like them.

    • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
      172·
      3 months ago

      I feel like I want to show this to creationists because it would just break their brains a bit. They’d quickly go back and say god planned it, but I love the pure evolution here.

    • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.eeEnglish
      101·
      3 months ago

      Still more natural than birds - who tf ever thought we would fall for such an obvious spy trick?

  • Got_Bent@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    3 months ago

    I’ve seen those things once in my life while on a boat in the Philippines. Really quite something to experience in person.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zipEnglish
    30·
    3 months ago

    I mean, you probably should throw it like a paper airplane (with form, and not stupendously forcefully), or at least put it back in the water. It is a fish, it will asphyxiate if you just keep holding it.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Apparently the longest ever recorded glide is 45 seconds.

        Fish don’t have lungs, so the analogy is kind of busted, but some humans can hold their breath for 30 seconds, some 2 minutes, some 5 minutes, but overall it doesn’t take long for brain damage/death to occur.

        I’d guesstimate that a flying fish would be probably irrevivably dead after 3 to 5 minutes out of water.

        I tried to look up more specifics on flying fish respiratory systems vs other fish back when I posted this, to see if they have measurably better ability to remain alive out of water for longer than other fish, but I couldn’t find much.

  • Gsus4@mander.xyzEnglish
    141·
    3 months ago

    hmm…how many million years until we have proper flying fish? Maybe it’s slower than land-air and land-water because the sky doesn’t have as much food?

    • cynar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      There are several major hurdles, and no particularly strong evolutionary drive to overcome them.

      The first is breathing. Fish “breath” water. Shifting to air takes a huge reconfiguration. It also compromises their ability to process water.

      The second is power. “Flying” fish are actually gliders. They build up momentum in the water before launching themselves into the air. They don’t actually have the ability to flap and maintain their flight. Developing the muscles for this would likely compromise their swi.ing slightly. That would be a far bigger issue, compared to a bit of extra gliding.

      A flying fish’s goal is to break contact with an underwater hunter, before reentering the water. A steerable glide is more than enough of this. There is simply no pressure to advance it further.

  • GluWu@lemm.eeEnglish
    5·
    3 months ago

    My dad told me some story about how people would catch flying fish with fishing poles that had little gas engines on them. This would be in the 70s on an large Atlantic island.

      • GluWu@lemm.eeEnglish
        8·
        3 months ago

        The reel. I heard this a long time ago. I fish a lot now but only fresh water so I can only guess what the deal was. Could be just to reel them in fast since they pass so quick. Could also be used to raise a net quickly. But they were rod with I think chain saw engines.

        Now that I’m thinking about it, electric motorized reels are popular today for deep sea fishing. Maybe these were actually the 70s prototype to haul fish up 300m and catching flying fish is another story I’m mixing it up with.

        Edit: I’m so sure I remember the cover of a fishing magazine that had like 3 people on the bank with these chainsaw rods to catch flying fish.