- Who
- Yakushima 2008 flyingfish
- What
- 45 second(s)
- Where
- Japan ()
- When
The longest documented flight by a flyingfish (from the Exocoetidae family) is 45 seconds for a fish caught on camera by a film crew from NHK (Japan) that was travelling on a ferry between Kuchinoerabujima Island and Yakushima Island in Kagoshima, Japan, in May 2008.
Based on the speed of the ferry, it was estimated that the fish was travelling at around 30 km/h (19 mph).
Until this point, the longest flight recorded by a flyingfish was 42 seconds, logged by an American researcher in the 1920s, according to Junji Yonezawa at the Center for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on Outlying Islands.
The typical distance flown by flyingfish during a glide is around 50 m (160 ft), but there are reports of some covering as much as 400 m (1,300 ft) before submerging. They sometimes leap as high as 6 m (20 ft) out of the water.
