Flying fish

 Wednesday April 10

The last two days have been spent at sea, rounding the NE corner of Brazil en route to Fortaleza, which we will reach about sunrise tomorrow.  The days have been a mixture of time spent on deck looking for seabirds and marine mammals and time spent learning from the naturalists on board ( interspersed with meals and time in the gym or the Pilates studio). Somewhat ironically, tropical waters support less plankton and therefore less overall food sources than do colder waters.  A consequent being a reduction in the number of predatory seabirds or marine mammals. 

We have seen two species of boobies ( mostly Masked Boobies and a single dark morph Red-footed Booby), and two pods of dolphins. Today the Booby watching was enriched by watching them try to catch flying fish.  Flying fish are aerodynamically designed to enable them to escape aquatic predators,  but of course their flight exposes them to aerial predators instead. The movement of the ship encourages the flying fish to “launch”, and the Boobies have learned to follow ships to take advantage of this phenomenon. The Boobies, as with Gannets and other related species, are adapted to plunge into the water in search of prey, but in the case of flying fish there is another mode. It was fascinating to watch the birds fly behind the fish to try to grab them from the air; the fish would then duck into the water; the bird would follow and then sometimes the fish would pop back out again to escape. All of this provided quite a challenge to the photographer!

 We learned that there are 64 different species of flying fish around the world (we saw two types today). All belong to the same genus, named for the ancient Greek belief that these creatures left the water to sleep on land at night.  We also learned about the anatomy and adaptations of major families of seabirds and of whales.  We are also learning about the Atlantic Ridge itself, and the way that the different elevations of the underwater mountain angle affects the creatures that live in the ocean. We are beginning to understand that to traverse the Atlantic is a purpose unto itself, not just a method to get to the islands on the other side. 

Pictured: two types of flying fish and two species of booby