Sitting on the deck here on Pine Island I was sorta reminded of a Sea Story. We regularly found Flying Fish on deck while underway .
I don’t know if Bubbleheads and Airdales ever experienced the critters, however, anybody that bobbed on the surface in the REAL Navy likely encountered this tropical phenomenon. Oh yeah, and regular civilian sailors also likely have as well.
Anyway, we’d see them regularly during the day. Sometimes seeming to surf our wake. But in the morning we’d be picking up their carcasses off the deck and tossing them over the side.
So this ain’t exactly a real “Sea Story”, but… I’ve discovered that there is a sort of flying fish here. AND Osprey help with that particular effort.
Sitting here looking out on Charlotte Harbor we regularly see fish jumping out of the water – not exactly flying, but likely dodging predators, and the Osprey are watching as well it seems.
As noted – the nesting Osprey are watching. These beautiful birds will see the splash, their tummies must growl, and they soar. Aside: Water can be pretty hard. Gives “Bird Brain” an odd perspective.
So… these birds will dive into the the water, and viola… a flying fish. Yeah, it is in the fisherman’s talons, but it IS in the air.
Update for any who read this: Thor has announced his presence.
Many of my off duty hours during the work-ups I went on in the Caribbean were spent at the Elevator doors watching the flying fish match the ship’s speed and flutter along in our wake. (USS Forrestal, USS John F. Kennedy, and USS Enterprise)
They were a welcome distraction while standing watch during open ocean transits across the Pacific.
Interesting post! How high can they “fly”? Hard to imagine that its high enough to get on a warship’s deck.
Waterline to deck was maybe 6-15 feet minus any rolls, etc. But, yeah, they made it. We’d find near a dozen some mornings.
Guessing they’re not edible…unless you are desperate?
well, they didn’t fly high enough to land on the carrier deck of the Bon Homme Richard lol
I deployed on more than a few skimmers, but I guess I didn’t get outside the skin of the ship too often cause flying fish were the only life I ever saw. No dolphins. No whales. No nothing. Just those damn flying fish.
Are flying fish edible?
The Osprey assisted flying fish are edible… YUM.
The others… dunno.
Then perhaps you can rename this article:
When Fish Fry
Nevermind …. I just realized you were talking about the feathered Osprey … not the V-22 Osprey.
Another great repartee lost.
Flying fish are indeed edible. Now whether you’d want to eat a flying fish that’s been dessicating on deck for hours in the tropics is a different story….
Also the roe is eaten as tobiko in sushi.
How long before PETA reports the Navy for killing harmless flying fish on their BGB’s? (Big Grey Boats)
Zero, Ol’ Poe’s only sailing on naval vessels took place when the 2d Battalion of the 327th Airborne Infantry sailed by LST from Phan Rang up the Vietnamese coast to Tuy Hoa, which is a story I believe I’ve previously related here. The entire battalion was so drunk when we loaded and so hung over the next day as we traveled north, we wouldn’t have noticed flying whales going over that LST.
However, when Sweet Thang and I lived in Pensacola, we did some sailing in the Caribbean with friends and the sight of flying fish sailing over our boats was relatively common yet always a delight to behold. What would make them pick out the only small vessel in a very large ocean to sail over was always a mystery to us.
When we were imbibing the native beverages and/or smoking the native vegetation, we used to speculate that it was some sort of a fish contest to see which one could clear the foredeck by the greatest height. On the other hand, some of us thought their contest was to see which of them could leap across the foredeck with the least clearance. Those daredevils I labeled Airborne Flying Fish.
Some occasionally landed in the cockpit but were so small we never thought of cooking them so whether or not they are good to eat is a question I cannot answer. We just re-entered them in the leaping contest by tossing them back overboard.
Perhaps if Ol Poe had caught one in his teeth he might be able to offer an epicurean opinion. Alas, the native beverages and herbs tended to slow Ol’ Poe’s reflexes but probably have rendered the flying fish as a munchie delight.
Poet: my friend (RIP) with the DSC that I’ve mentioned here several times was the A Co CO 2/327. He was awarded the DSC for action in Jul ’66. Luther Woods. Know him by chance?
SJ, it’s been so long ago that individual names are hard to recall but I’m thinking he may have been awarded that DSC for action in the battle of Trung Luong in Jun ’66 although Captain Tom Furgeson was A Company commander during that battle. Alpha Company got chewed up pretty badly in that one.
This was the largest battle in which I participated in my tour and the battalion was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for it which I didn’t discover until about ten years ago when I Googled the place name and found this article:
http://articles.philly.com/2000-04-16/news/25591172_1_vietnam-battles-vietnam-war-south-vietnam
I was the battalion CBR NCO, an unneeded MOS in Vietnam at that time, functioning as an assistant S-3 NCO at the time, and operating the battalion tactical net for the duration of the battle. The COL Moore mentioned in the newspaper account is the same Hal Moore of “We Were Soldiers Once and Young” book and movie fame. I was in the forward TOC when Moore blasted in and took over. He was larger than life and hell on wheels.
Military historian S.L.A. Marshall also wrote an account of the battle in his “Fields of Bamboo.”
Appreciate the links. Here’s his citation. http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=4712. He was proud that he never fired his weapon in anger because he was supposed to lead and not shoot…yet he had a DSC. He and I were in Germany after that tour and before I went to the same BDE. We later were in the Pentagon for a long time. Ran everyday. My son named after him. With him before he died of cancer. Wife is close friend of ours…see her a lot.
SJ, I see it was the battle of Trung Luong as I suspected. The initial date in the citation is incorrect but the subsequent dates are correctly in June 1966.
That was a badass battle. I have no idea where our forward TOC was in relation to the line companies but the fighting was going on all around us. We choppered in after the fighting started and set up a CP tent. We had cooks and clerks out on perimeter security and they were engaged.
I got to spend about 36 hours operating that battalion tactical net for Moore and came away impressed. He was the poster child for a lean, mean Airborne officer and treated me and the other staff NCO’s fine but he was hell on the officers including, to some extent, our battalion C.O. LTC Wasco.
UPDATE: SJ, I just went to the 327th Website and found another account of the battle by a retired LTC and Woods is Charley Company commander. Here’s the link:
http://327infantry.org/node/3311
He’s also in the top picture on this page:
http://www.327infantry.org/second/home
I’ve seen flying fish fly in groups over the water during some of my Navy deployments.
Flying fish? Yeah, we’ll be seeing them in the Great Lakes soon enough. Thanks Illinois and a couple other government agencies!!
I heard that skeet shooting Asian Carp is the latest rage back there. Any truth to that?
I’ve seen entry of stories and videos of contests they have to see who catches the most in the least time, some catches are measured in tons!
Saw them everyday and kicked them back in every morning when I worked the oil field. I was amazed when I first saw them, as I always thought flying fish were some exotic foreign water animal.
At night tuna would circle our boat so thickly you could have gigged them. The guys said they were eating the flying fish.