Margined flyingfish

The longest flight on record lasted 45 seconds, filmed from a ferry off Yakushima, Japan, in 2008. By beating its tail on the water between glides, a flying fish can stretch a single flight to about 400 metres.

Nobody has measured a single glide of 650 feet, the figure that gets repeated most. What has been measured is the chain: a flying fish taxis along the surface with the long lower lobe of its tail still in the water, lifts off, glides, and drops its tail back in to pick up speed, covering up to about 400 m in around 30 seconds at 10 to 20 metres a second.

This is a four-winged flyingfish: as well as the long pectoral fins, the pelvic fins are enlarged into a second, smaller pair of wings. The margined flyingfish is named for the narrow pale edge on its dark pectoral fins.

A dead flying fish still glides as well as a bird. In a 2010 wind-tunnel study, dried and stuffed specimens of a close relative, Cypselurus hiraii, matched the wings of petrels, hawks and wood ducks. They flew best held level with the water, the way they glide at sea, and the surface itself boosted their lift, the same ground effect low-flying birds use.

Flying fish are short-lived. Radiochemical dating of a related Caribbean species found adults were about a year old, and nearly all under two.

Least Concern is the global Red List status. Flying fish are fished heavily in some places, notably the eastern Caribbean, but the margined flyingfish ranges across warm seas worldwide and is not considered threatened.