WHEN A FISH GETS A MOVE ON.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, 24 December 1907, Page 27

WHEN A FISH GETS A MOVE ON.

The speed of fishes is difficult to ascertain. Nevertheless, estimates have been made, showing that the mackerel, considering its handicap in size, comes close to being the champion racer. Unquestionably the mackerel travels sometimes as fast as an express train at high speed—say at the rate of sixty or possibly seventy miles an hour.- Other things- being equal, the larger the fish the faster, it swims— ; just as the huge steamship is able to travel at a speed much greater than the little harbour tug. Undoubtedly the energy employed by a fish of: great size, such as a thirtyfoot shark, when travelling at its best gait, is something tremendous. An ordinary tug, which represents a maximum of energy in a minimum of . bulk, utilizes about two hundred horse-power. Of course it is only a / guess, but it would not seem to -be ; over the mark that a sev-enty-foot whale makes use of five bun- . dred horse-poWef ..when it propels its huge bulk through the water at a rate ■ of thirty miles an hour. A whale, which is a mammal, and not a fish, might be compared, to a - freight train if the shark is a cannonball express, but it can beat the fastest “ocean greyhound” in a speed contest.

The tarpon is probably faster than the shark. It is believed that a tarpon in a hurry can travel at the- rate of eighty miles an hour. Our own kahuwai, with a pressing appointment elsewhere, is no slouch.