Flying Fish Found On West Falmouth Beach
A Falmouth resident discovered a rare flying fish on a West Falmouth beach on Sunday, June 19.
NiNi Yue was walking along a beach in West Falmouth with her dog and picking up trash like she usually does. She was picking up a Mylar balloon caught near a jetty when she spotted the rather large, unusual fish.
“At first, I thought it was just a 10-inch-long pretty fish,” Ms. Yue said. “But then I saw the length of the fins and I had a strong suspicion that it might be a flying fish.”
Despite having never seen one in real life, she had heard and seen pictures of flying fish. She fired a text off to her brother and a friend, both of whom love to fish, who confirmed that it did appear to be a flying fish.
The Exocoetidae, colloquially known as the flying fish, is a torpedo-shaped fish with unusually large pectoral fins and unevenly forked tails that aid its gliding abilities. Despite its name, the flying fish is more of a gliding creature than a flying one—it actually uses its tail to swim upward toward the surface of the water at a high velocity of up to 37 miles per hour, exiting the water at an angle and spreading its rigid wings to catch the air and glide for up to 650 feet at a time.
Roughly 40 species of flying fish exist, yet they are largely present in tropical waters and are not native to the Cape Cod region. They can be found in the open ocean of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, but seeing one this far north at this time of year is rare.
When Ms. Yue found the fish, she said its eyes were still clear and its color was still vibrant, indicating that it had not been dead for very long.
She said she contacted the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution but did not hear back.
A few days after it was found, another resident threw the fish back into the ocean.