Hal Goodmani age 13: of Brooklyn N.Y.

How do flying fish really fly?

Some people argue that a flying fish flaps his fins as a bird flaps his wings. But we have moving pictures to prove that he does not. The fish goes through the air at a great mate and it is hard for the eye to follow him aecurately6 The camera can take slow motion pictures and we can see the details of the flight step by step. We can examine each picture by itself, And so far, no camera has shown a flying fish flapping his fins,

What's more. the fish experts say this would be impossible, The flying fish's fins may look like wings and they are attached to where wings would be if he were a bird. But a bird has powerful muscles attached to his wings to make them flap. The flying fish has no such wing muscles, He couldn’t flap his fins even if he tried,

Actually the fish goes through the air in a gliding leap, He is trying to escape his enemies,, the shark and the tuna below, He gets up speed by swimming fast near the surface. The friendly sea lifts him higher on a heaving wave, As he rises up he flicks his powerful tail like a boat oar to get still more speed. Then he cuts through the crest of the wave into the air.

The gauzy fins are spread out like wings and the breeze catches under them and gives him an extra boost. Along he goes skimming like a glider over the waves. His flying leap ends when he reaches the crest of another heaving wave. If trouble still lurks below: he gets up speed for another flying leap through the air.

Sometimes he is unlucky even if he escapes the hungry monsters below, Flying fish are very good to eat. The sea gulls know this and hover around, A flying fish may escape a shark in the water only to be gobbled up by a sea gull in the air. The frightened fellow cannot do much to guide his flight through the air, He may well land on the deck of a passing ship, In this case he usually ends up in the ships galley ‑ fried in butter.

There are some 65 different flying fish, All of them natives of warm  Tropical seas.