Fish
Tropical two-wing flyingfish
Exocoetus volitans
Epipelagic zone
A fish that escapes predators by launching clear out of the water and gliding on its giant, wing-like pectoral fins.
🗺️ Geographic range
Cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical zones of all oceans, including the western Mediterranean and the Caribbean; absent from the Gulf of Mexico and certain inland Southeast Asian seas.
📊 Population
Abundant and widely distributed species, with no significant targeted fishery or identified threat; its population trend is not precisely quantified but it is considered stable given its wide range.
Habitat
- Pacific Ocean · High seas / open water · Epipelagic zone · Permanent
🥚 Reproduction
Oviparous: the female releases 300–400 eggs directly into open water, with no nest or parental care; eggs and larvae then drift in the plankton.
Behaviour
- Diet
- Planktonic crustaceans, mainly copepods, and other zooplankton.
- Hunting
- Does not actively hunt: it picks off zooplankton at the surface, in open water.
- Communication
- None known.
- Social life
- Gregarious, forms schools at the surface.
Physiology
- Anatomy
- Torpedo-shaped body, iridescent blue back, silvery-white belly, two greatly enlarged pectoral fins used as gliding wings, asymmetric tail fin with an elongated lower lobe.
- Respiration
- Standard gill respiration; does not truly 'fly' but glides after a takeoff powered by rapid tail-beats at the surface.
- Vision
- Large eyes adapted to bright surface light, useful for spotting predators.
- Adaptations
- Stiffened pectoral fins acting as gliding wings, enabling escape 'flights' of tens to hundreds of meters, aided by countershaded coloration that limits detection by predators from above and below.
🔗 Web of marine life
Predators
⚡ Its extraordinary abilities
- Launches out of the water and glides over the surface for tens of meters, aided by ultra-rapid tail-beats to relaunch its flight
- Thanks to its two pectoral 'wings,' evades tuna and dolphinfish below as well as seabirds above
🏆 Records
Longest gliding flight ever filmed in a flying fish
The flying-fish family (Exocoetidae), to which this species belongs, holds the record for the longest continuous 'flight' by a fish: 45 seconds airborne, filmed off Japan in 2008.
If you cross paths with this animal…
Risk: None, completely harmless to humans.
Behaviour: Startles and leaps from the water when a boat or predator approaches.
Advice: Watch for silvery flashes skimming the surface near boats in tropical waters — no interaction is possible or needed.
💡 Did you know?
- For flying fish in general, a single glide can cover up to 400 m at nearly 70 km/h, with the fish able to re-dip its tail mid-flight to chain together several leaps.
- The female scatters 300–400 eggs at once in the open sea, with no nest or parental protection whatsoever.
