Spectacular photos (and more) of sailfish hunting!

[capman]

I've always had a special fondness/fascination for fish with naturally huge fins - fish like sailfin mollies, sailfin tangs, marine bettas, freshwater angelfish, etc.

And sailfish.

And I've also been fascinated by creatures that live in the vastness of the open ocean.

So naturally I was fascinated by this month's National Geographic magazine that has spectacular photos of sailfish hunting sardines cooperatively.

And it gets even better. You can find the whole article with the photos on the web.

And better still, there is video!

Take a look:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/sailfish/holland-text


I think sailfish now rank in my mind as one of the world's most spectacular fish.

[capman]

Incidentally, in addition to being beautiful, smart, top predators in the ocean, billfish (sailfish, marlins, etc) have some other really cool things about them. They have specialized tissues beneath their brains and adjacent to their eyes that keep their brains and eyes 14 degree C (25.2 degrees F) warmer than ambient temperatures. This helps them to maintain a higher level of brain function (and better vision???) than if their brains were at water temperature, and to have their brain function somewhat independent of water temperatures. Very cool.

Do a Google search for sailfish (or marlin, or swordfish, or billfish) brain temperature to find lots of pages talking about this.

And in this regard, you might find it interesting that billfish are not the only fish that maintain high internal temperatures by internal heat production. Tunas and some sharks maintain a higher body core temperature than the surrounding water.

In all of these fish, they are able to retain this heat that they generate both because they are big (so they have small surface area to volume ratios), and because they have specializations of their circulatory systems that help them retain the heat. These specializations typically are counter-current systems (look it up), which function pretty much like the air exchange units that obsessive aquarists with too many tanks in their basements sometimes install in their basements to exchange air with the outside and not lose too much heat in the winter in the process.

This page talks a bit about fish with warm brains and bodies along with other related issues: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warm-blooded

[cwk132]

those pictures are amazing! the first is my favorite

[capman]

My favorite too.

Be sure to watch the video if you have not already. It is very cool.

[Zibba]

They are amazing fish. I was fortunate enough to go on a fishing trip in the Gulf where I caught a gorgeous sailfish after, similar to the video, we first tracked the birds, then could see the bait ball. We finally saw the sailfish fining at the top of the water. I couldn't believe the colors on the fish when it was coming into the boat. Colors quickly changed after the fish was in the boat, but we were able to capture it all on camera. Wish I had the photos on hand to share.

Thanks for the link. The video is incredible.

[Otolith]

Absolutely amazing. I've always been fascinated with these types of fish as well.

Bill, great to see you around! I assume you're staying busy as usual?

[capman]

I had a pretty busy Spring semester (a good semester, but one of my busiest), and never got around to logging in here. Then had lots of things going on this summer (a lot of family stuff keeping me really busy this summer). I also have been pretty obsessed with photography this summer (and the TCMAS forum has had lots of competition for my free time from the Flickr forums where people obsess compulsively about cameras, and lenses, and shooting and lighting techniques, and photo editing software, and other such things). Among other things, there was an absolutely amazing bird migration back in May, and I was out in the field a lot with my camera (and often with the kids and/or my wife) in May and June.

When I logged in here yesterday it said I had not logged in since January!

[coralreefer]

Have you seen blue planet where they talk about these fish?

[capman]

No, but now I want to.

[thepollock]

Have you seen blue planet where they talk about these fish?

i got it on dvd i love it. i also have the deep water one.