SEA “PLANES”

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 59, 2 December 1933, Page 23

SEA “PLANES”

FISH WHO TAKE THE AIR It is not often that you can see fish in the sea. The shiny nature of the surface and the ruffling by the least breeze prevent you seeing clearly into the watery world. The Japanese fisherman gets over these difficulties by using a box with a glass bottom. He puts this on the water and It stops the glare and the ripple. He can then see when a fish passes within his reach, and can spear it. Of course, you have heard of the flying-fish which jump right out of the sea for a flight in the air. They do not live in British waters. But there are creatures in our own seas which take short breathers in the air. And it is nice to know what they are when you see them. There is the whale, of course, but he is seldom seen close to land. The porpoise is a regular summer visitor.. When he hunts the mackerel you see him lift more than half his shiny black body out of the water each time he takes a roll. While he is hunting mackerel, they, in turn, are usually hunting a little fish called' the I whitebait; and these, in their haste to escape the muckered, often leap out of the watef. Twice a year the salmon comes up into the rivers from a long voyage under the ocenn. He goes up the waterfalls by making huge leaps through the air. If you are spending your holidays near a salmon river, now is the time to see him jumping the rapids. It is a lovely sight. There is a beautiful sea fish called the base or rock-salmon. When waves are breaking on a beach the bass will swim boldly to the very middle of the wave where the water is standing on end, have a peep out (like looking through a window) and then oft like lightning. All you see if you are standing on the beach is a flash. But how many people when they see that flash know that it is a fish looking through a wave window?