Marco! Polo! Fish out of water!

May 22, 2008 9:53 AM

Fly high, little fish!
posted by Burhanistan (48 comments total)

something fishy about that video
posted by wendell at 9:57 AM on May 22, 2008

This is a record? I thought it was standard. Once when I was on my way to a dive site in Belize I was sitting on the bow of the boat as we sped a long and a flying fish jumped out of the water and kept pace with the boat in the air for about a minute. At first I thought I was hallucinating but as 20 seconds turned into 60 I got more and more amazed.
posted by spicynuts at 9:58 AM on May 22, 2008

That is one rad fish.
posted by Mister_A at 9:59 AM on May 22, 2008

Either the reporter doesn't know what "soaring" means or I don't.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:00 AM on May 22, 2008

Obviously this is the missing link in the evoution of fish into birds!
posted by msalt at 10:00 AM on May 22, 2008

"Launch"
posted by DU at 10:06 AM on May 22, 2008

Obviously this is the missing link in the evoution of fish into birds!

I thought about aspects of that as well. In addition, and I may be indulging in anthropomorphism here, the fish must perceive the world above the surface as something quite unique to being underwater. I wonder what sort of effect that has on its fishy cognition and instinctual data that it passes on for posterity.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:07 AM on May 22, 2008

Speaking of the missing link, the fish stayed aloft longer than the link.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:13 AM on May 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

And I had just read earlier today, a quote in a book that, "The only fish that can understand the concept of """"ocean"""" is the flying fish."
posted by Yer-Ol-Pal at 10:13 AM on May 22, 2008 [3 favorites]

"Due to usage restrictions we are unable to provide this video"
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:14 AM on May 22, 2008

YouTube also has it.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:17 AM on May 22, 2008

non-sequitor
posted by Pecinpah at 10:18 AM on May 22, 2008

Video doesn't play in Canada due to unspecified restrictions, perhaps the fish sold the rights to another broadcaster here. I'd bit torrent a NBC program as punishment if there was anything worth watching on that network.
posted by Keith Talent at 10:20 AM on May 22, 2008 [2 favorites]

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings!"

Fly on little fish! You can be the Jonathon Livingston Flying Fish!

I saw some flying fish for the first time in the waters off Hondurus, a whole school of them leaping and gliding. Really cool to watch.
posted by elendil71 at 10:20 AM on May 22, 2008

That guy really rocks out the drum simulator.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:20 AM on May 22, 2008

I have a strange yet overwhelming desire to purchase Cascade dishwashing liquid.
posted by Dizzy at 10:27 AM on May 22, 2008

Funny, I'm having the same feeling about some sort of extra-feminine razor.

I guess hairy fish are less aerodynamic or something.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:33 AM on May 22, 2008 [2 favorites]

You know in really small towns how stores must have more than one specialty to stay alive?
Like vacuum cleaner repair and veterinary hospital? Delicatessen and tanning salon?
MetaFilter: flying fish and drum machines.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:42 AM on May 22, 2008

Pepsi bluefish.
posted by The Bellman at 10:42 AM on May 22, 2008

Someone beat me to the Jonathan Livingston Seafish reference. I hate you.
posted by Krrrlson at 10:46 AM on May 22, 2008

Keep evolving! 14 more seconds, and the flight would have been comparable to the Wright Brothers.
posted by Dave Faris at 10:50 AM on May 22, 2008

His mortal enemy.
posted by Mister_A at 10:55 AM on May 22, 2008

...and his mortal enemy.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:06 AM on May 22, 2008 [3 favorites]

"The only fish that can understand the concept of """"ocean"""" is the flying fish."

That is ludicrous and obviously written by someone who has never been fishing. Plenty of fish jump out of the water after prey or break the surface when attacking - marlin, swordfish, sharks, tuna, bass, salmon, etc etc etc. They can also see above the water. So that is just ludicrous.
posted by spicynuts at 11:11 AM on May 22, 2008

I also hate that I was beaten to the Jonathan Livingston ____ reference.

We really should take turns or something. This can't go on.
posted by cowbellemoo at 11:12 AM on May 22, 2008

Fugu fish.
posted by tadellin at 11:33 AM on May 22, 2008

I don't think it was worth being served 3 ads to watch that video.
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 11:47 AM on May 22, 2008

I'd eat it!
posted by not_on_display at 11:47 AM on May 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

Yeah but do we need 'em? The sea is getting full up of stuff. This thing is half way between a fish and a bird and it's trying to get out of the sea. There must be loads of stuff down there for it to want to get out. Now it wants to go into the sky, and that's crowded too.

They do me 'ead in. Get rid of 'em.
posted by jimmythefish at 11:54 AM on May 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon the road to Mandalay,
Where the flying fishes break previously known records and amaze the punters while bring various questions philosophical and scientific bubbling to the surface, and also play!

Nah, doesn't scan.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 11:55 AM on May 22, 2008

jimmythefish, you are Karl Pilkington and I claim my five pounds.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 11:56 AM on May 22, 2008

Must be a Pisces, working for scale.
posted by Floydd at 12:02 PM on May 22, 2008 [2 favorites]

Bwahaahaa! Working for scale! I get it!
posted by Mister_A at 12:11 PM on May 22, 2008

It's a streetlight.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:20 PM on May 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

It's a dessert topping.
posted by Dizzy at 12:23 PM on May 22, 2008

Do you think his eyes dry out or does he have very tiny fish goggles?
posted by Lord_Pall at 12:39 PM on May 22, 2008

Can you just imagine if sharks - specifically Great Whites - gained the ability to fly, rather than simply jump?
posted by davidmsc at 12:56 PM on May 22, 2008

Because of rising costs, most great whites tend to take the train.
posted by Dizzy at 12:59 PM on May 22, 2008

Do you think his eyes dry out or does he have very tiny fish goggles?

Goggles. And a zeppelin.
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:07 PM on May 22, 2008

If I were a flying fish I'd probably just taunt penguins all day. I'd be like "try to catch me!" and they'd be like "OK" BUT THEN I'd fly away and be all like "what's the matter, bird?! Why don't you just fly up in the air and catch me? You are a bird, right? Birds fly, don't they?" and they'd be like "grrr, stupid flying fish" and then I'd fly home and make sweet sweet love to my beautiful flying fish wife and
posted by soundofsuburbia at 1:10 PM on May 22, 2008 [11 favorites]

ocean's so polluted, had to take a vacation...
posted by punkbitch at 1:33 PM on May 22, 2008

That is ludicrous and obviously written by someone who has never been fishing. Plenty of fish jump out of the water after prey or break the surface when attacking - marlin, swordfish, sharks, tuna, bass, salmon, etc etc etc. They can also see above the water. So that is just ludicrous.

Double shot of ludicrous notwithstanding, those fish you mention do indeed entirely breech the surface, but they do so only with sheer momentum. They don't continue to stay out of the water in the same way that flying fish do. The fish in the linked video is clearly making efforts to stay in the air longer by beating its tail fin against the surface. So, while I don't know how fish see things, I would hazard a guess that being able to maintain gliding takes more cognition/processing than simply flopping out of the water then falling straight back down.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:40 PM on May 22, 2008

Ludacris understands swimming.
posted by pracowity at 2:21 PM on May 22, 2008

what a coincidence, I was just watching Alton Brown talk about frying fish.
posted by billyfleetwood at 2:57 PM on May 22, 2008

This must be Kirk Cameron's fabled CrocoDuck!
posted by dobbs at 4:42 PM on May 22, 2008

My favorite breeching fish is the mobula ray. Video here; it's a bit indistinct until 20 seconds in, when you can really see how desparate these things seem to be to get airborne in their own clumsy way.
posted by wanderingmind at 6:35 PM on May 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

Pecinpah: non-sequitor

Burhanistan: That guy really rocks out the drum simulator.

That's because he's Keith Moonie! :)
posted by hincandenza at 7:45 PM on May 22, 2008

Whoa. Those leaping mantas are amazing. I hadn't been able to visualize the incident a few months ago when a Florida (?) man was killed when a leaping ray knocked him over -- but thanks to these videos, I understand. Damn.

Anyone else think of the flying sub from "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" when they watch those rays jump?
posted by davidmsc at 5:20 AM on May 23, 2008