Still Further Musings on Flying Fish
13 September 2017 | Bali
Tom
As some of you may remember, I have written a couple of previous blogs on flying fish, discussing their characteristics and my observations. One may ask why I have such an obsession with one type of fish or for that matter fish in general. I have pondered the same question and realized it is a matter of exposure to my consciousness. When you do long ocean passages at 5 to 6 miles an hour you are left with a lot of time to fill in. Some of this is done with sailing the boat, reading and general boat chores. However, a lot of time is spent staring out at the ocean. During this activity one can sometimes see dolphins, occasional whales and a variety of sea birds. But one almost always sees flying fish. So for hours one has the time to watch, speculate and generally analyze these fascinating creatures.
But I digress. I want to update my observations with regard to the Indonesian flying fish. This specimen stands out in terms of size (much larger than their Pacific cousins), colour (a beautiful blue) and most importantly the distance of their flights. These are definitely the long haul or international component of the flying fish fleet. Previous flying fish I have observed would have to be considered as purely domestic carriers. For the most part I find the Indonesian variety to be solo flyers and on a number of occasions I have seen them fly off to what seemed the horizon, touching down briefly from time to time to dip their tail in the water, accelerate and returning to flight velocity. Truly amazing to watch. So I continue to observe. ( And no I didn’t take the photo. I’m not that good of a photographer)