Flying Fish

It's a bird! It's a plane!

Nope. It's a fish! And it can fly. The record for a sustained glide by a flying fish is 1300 feet, at a speed of 42 miles per hour! They achieve flight by beating their tail 70 times a second and launching themselves out of the water, then ride the updrafts waves produce. They can fly up to 20 feet vertically into the air, and sometimes accidentally strand themselves on ships.

Those are impressive numbers for an animal that is generally designed to swim for a living, and can’t even breathe air.

Exocoetidae is a family of marine fish in the order Beloniformes of class Actinopterygii. Fish of this family are known as flying fish. There are about sixty-four species grouped in seven to nine genera. Flying fish use this fascinating arial display as a natural defense mechanism to evade predators.