WEBVTT - Leaping Mullets! Flying Fish! Breaching Sharks! 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind from how stop 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:15.760 works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:18.800 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. So, Robert, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:23.000 I know that recently you were on vacation somewhere. I was. Yeah, 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:25.400 I went down to Florida with the family, and on 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.440 the way back up we stopped at this place called 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.720 what Coola Springs. What Coola Frings Springs State Park in 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:36.040 Florida near Tallahassee ended up just being really delightful. What's 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:38.080 this place like? Basically, what you have here is just 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:42.080 an enormous spring, okay, like a geological spring. Water coming 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:43.800 out of the ground. Yeah, water coming out of the ground, 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.920 water coming out of just enormous caverns that are under 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:51.000 the water here. Uh, really clear water, and it maintains 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.280 a constant temperature of around sixty nine or seventy degrees 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.240 so when winter comes it's a haven for manatees, and 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.400 especially manatees, but other creatures to that that that want 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:05.759 that constant temperature. Um. Interestingly enough, they filmed a few 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:07.800 scenes from the Creature from the Plat from the Black 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:13.920 Lagoon there. Yeah, particularly the creatures layer uh. You get 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.720 to pass by that if you take these boat tours. Uh, 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:18.440 And that's really the main reason to go. You can 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:19.959 swim there, but you can, but you get to go 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.080 in these these really cool boat tours where you get 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:27.160 to see all of these crazy estuary um uh species 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:33.120 doing their thing, all the diving birds, gators, gators laying 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.000 in the sun by the dozens, get to see manatees, 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.440 and you also get to see these these mullets, the 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:44.560 fish mullet, not the hairstyle. You probably saw some of those. Yeah, 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:48.480 I think I did see the traditional um hairstyle mullet 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.360 here there, but but yeah, these are the fish and 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.800 they're just leaping out of the water. It's like if 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.120 you look around, you expect to see like a Disney 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:01.160 princess waiting around, Like that's how active the wildlife is here. 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:03.720 And uh, but but it really makes you think, like, 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:06.560 why are these creatures one of these fish jumping out 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.200 of the water. If you're like me and you didn't 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:11.560 have a lot of preconceived notions or you hadn't researched 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:13.919 it before, you might think, oh, well, there are all 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.000 sorts of animals around here. They're gators in the water. 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.919 They're probably jumping out of the water to escape predators. Right, Yeah, 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.080 that makes pretty easy sense. A lot of the maneuvering 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.880 you'd see and the fish, especially a prey species, would 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:30.359 be fleeing behavior. And yet it turns out there's more 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:34.440 to it than that. And uh, not only with the 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.600 with mullets, but with other species of fish as well. Uh. 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.720 And that's the reason we're having this episode discuss some 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:45.040 of the mysteries, some of the theories, uh, some of 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:50.240 the at times myths surrounding leaping fish, fish that actually 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.720 throw themselves out of the water, out of their their habitat, 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:58.040 their aquatic habitat, into this strange, alien world of gases 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.920 and vapors. Yeah, when you think about it, it is 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.200 so weird. Um, it's hard for us to imagine what 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.560 it's like crossing this boundary between worlds from the water 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:11.400 up into the land of gas, into the atmosphere, because 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:15.080 it's not exactly like a terrestrial animal diving into the water. 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.520 Because when you jump out of the water, the water 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:21.080 is your natural environment. Gravity is always going to be 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:25.280 pulling you back down into this watery world. Plus there's 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.440 just so much more going on underwater than there is 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.120 going on in the air. I mean, on the land 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.720 is one thing, but you know, think about what most 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.640 of the air above the water is like. It's just 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:39.960 it's a void under the water is another ecosystem. Leaping 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.200 into the air is almost as if terrestrial animals could 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:47.520 briefly leap into outer space. Right makes me. It makes 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:49.800 me think of a part in Phantasm where they go 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.600 through like the stargate into the barren world with the 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.480 dwarves or hauling stuff around. It is like it's like 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.240 zipping out of your world into another and then coming 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.760 back into your your world, perhaps in a different location, 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.760 making it kind of kind of like that teleport that 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.360 the raiding character does in the first couple of Mortal 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:09.880 Kombat games. You know, oh it's great. Yeah, what does 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.520 he say when he teleports? Or does he have one? Uh? 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.119 He have something he says when he does a Superman 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.360 But I don't remember if he says anything when he teleports. 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.279 But maybe he should he just grins and as lightning 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.320 come out of his eyes. What he should do? I 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.080 I hope someday somebody goes back to the first Mortal 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:29.080 Kombat game and dubs in Christopher Lambert's lines from the 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:37.040 movie Oh yeah, that's right one. But back to leaping fish. So, Robert, 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.040 knowing your inquisitive nature, I bet you asked somebody at 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:43.040 the park about the mullet jumping behavior, didn't you. I did, 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:47.200 and the park ranger was very insightful and all this 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:51.960 and mentioned that they're a handful of theories here, okay, um, 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:54.520 and the idea that they're escaping predators is not one 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.960 of them. So one is that they may jump to 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.440 dislodge parasites, and certainly, aquatic life is full of many 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:06.719 strange parasite removal strategies, including allowing cleaner organisms to crawl 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:11.240 into your body. Right. Um, wait what allowing cleaner or 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:15.000 you've seen I see you mean, um an organism that 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:18.520 does cleaning, not a relatively cleaner organism. No, no, no, yeah, 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.120 I'm talking a lot like allowing a small shrimp to 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:24.200 climb into your gills or your mouth in order to 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:28.640 eat these things. Um, even at times, even allowing creatures 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:31.520 from the air to come down and feast on your parasite. 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.920 I believe it's the sunfish that does that allows the 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.919 love of certain birds to help remove its parasites. That's fantastic. 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.400 Now can you imagine if every time we got like 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:42.560 a guinea worm or something like that, we could just 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.600 leap into outer space to turn Well, that sounds kind 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:50.320 of ridiculous, and and indeed that's one of the criticisms 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:54.760 against this theory, uh broadly speaking concerning fish, because you 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:56.840 see that thrown out a lot with with jumping fish. Oh, 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:00.240 it's a parasite removal strategy. But critics of this theory 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.479 will point out that, hey, parasites, once they get in you, 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:07.160 they have ways of lodging themselves where they want to be, 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:11.240 just merely that the frantic leaping through the air is 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:14.080 not going to dislodge them. Well, then what are the 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.240 other theories? Well, the crazier theory, and this is one 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.320 that I find really interesting, is that mullets spend a 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:22.880 lot of their time in waters that are low and 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.359 dissolved oxygen, and so they may exit the water in 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:29.479 order to clear their gills and expose themselves to higher 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:34.320 levels of oxygen. So that that really blew my mind. 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:37.600 The idea that essentially the fish is coming out of 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:43.200 the water to breathe and then returned I know, but 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.520 but it's this is one of the theories. Um they 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:49.800 also may jump during spawning season to break open their 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:54.080 eggs acts in preparation for the spawn, and marine biologist 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.279 Dr Grant Gilmore thinks it may come down to their 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:01.000 sometimes dark habitats. They may jump uh in these cases 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.479 to let others in the school know where they are, 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:05.919 So in this case it would be a form of 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:09.440 communication or social signaling, which comes up later in this 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:11.800 episode with some of the other jumping fish we talk 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.560 about some of the more ferocious ones. Alright, so for 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.440 the rest of this episode, we're gonna be looking at 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.400 some of these some of the most interesting fish jumping 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.400 behaviors around the world. And I want to say that 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:27.400 I found this topic way more interesting than I expected to. Yeah. First, 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.160 I was like, Okay, what is there to say about 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:32.520 fish jumping? They jump? But but fish jumping can be 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.400 very strange, can be a danger, can be a nuisance, 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:39.040 can be very funny. Uh, And the reasons why they 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:41.600 do it are more mysterious in some cases than I 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:45.200 would have guessed. But okay, so I guess we should 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.960 start broadly. What what do we know about in general 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.200 why fish jump? Well? Oh, and sorry, one more thing 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.920 I should say we should specify you all out there. 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.160 You know the difference between a fish and mammal. So 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.360 you've seen dolphins jump playing in the ways or at 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:03.680 a dolphin show, or uh maybe just playing echo of 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.520 the dolphin. We're not talking about mammals today. This is 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.360 gonna be a fish focused episode. Yeah, I mean, there's 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.080 even a gliding squid that propels itself out of the 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.360 ocean by shooting out a jet of water at high 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.160 you know, high pressure water jet. We're not gonna get 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:20.360 into that either. Well, wait, if there's enough demand, will 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:25.160 save other leaping um sea life for other episodes. But yeah, 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:26.920 I think a good place to start is just to 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.600 sort of go back to this idea that okay, fish 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.120 jump out of the water to escape predators and acknowledge 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.120 that yes, this actually is a strategy with some creatures, 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.880 for instance, killie fish. Now they are roughly one thousand, 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.000 two hundred and seventy different species of killy fish, and 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:47.640 most are fully aquatic with no obvious morphological specializations for 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.720 terrestrial locomotion. Locomotion individuals from several different species have been 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:56.240 observed moving across land though a tail flip behavior that 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.280 generates a terrestrial jump. But wait a minute, so this 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.080 isn't just jumping into the air. This is jumping onto 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.240 a dry land surface. Yeah, it's essentially it's gonna do 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.520 the too dangerous in the water, I gotta jump out, 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.000 huh and and then flop back in. And they do. 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.200 They do this to escape predators or occasionally apparently pour 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.480 water conditions. Okay, So in our outer space analogy, this 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.880 is more like instead of just briefly leaping into outer space, 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.600 if things got really hairy wherever you were, you could 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.280 jump onto the moon for a minute and then jump 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.800 back down somewhere on Earth. Yeah, or taking like you know, 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.920 proposed space tourism flight that just sends you into low 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.640 orbit and then brings you back down. Uh, be that 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.120 kind of thing, I think. Uh. But indeed kind of 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.200 like Raiden's teleport where he's blinking out of this world, 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:43.800 I guess going to some god land and then coming 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:47.760 back into the picture somewhere else. And this is interesting 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.160 because too, because that the aquatic amphibious distinction is key 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:55.120 because it's one thing for saying, air breathing walking catfish 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:58.840 for mud skippers or lungfish to behave in this baby 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:01.120 this way because they've taken to the next level, right, 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.800 bordering on you know, creature from the Black Lagoon or 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.880 bloodwaters of Doctor Z territory, but aquatic fish that just 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:13.000 seems crazy, right, um? So yeah, the tail flip flings 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.120 him out of the water through the air several body 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.400 links sometimes out of the water and onto the bank, 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:19.360 and then they have to flip to get back in. 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:22.480 Sounds dangerous though, I mean, if you you're a fish, 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:24.840 you flip out of the water and then you rapidly 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:27.120 twist your body around to try to flip back into 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:29.520 the water. I mean you've only got a very limited 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:31.800 amount of time. They're right, right, yeah, because if you 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.160 because the big risks here are that you're going to 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.000 you're gonna you could dry out or you could as 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.560 sixty eight uh so, and and you know, of course 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.480 also banking on the idea that there are no um 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:47.120 terrestrial predators on the water bank. So that's the killie fish. Yeah. 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.040 What else do we have take us to the next 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.920 the next level here with our leaping aquatic creatures. Well, 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.600 I want to talk Robert about an Asian carponato Oh 0:10:56.800 --> 0:10:59.560 sounds good, okay, So stop me if you've seen this video, 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.360 this YouTube video before. You've got two passengers sitting in 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:06.480 a boat there in twin seats, facing off the stern 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:09.400 of a fishing boat with an outboard motor. Is this 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:14.640 guy father too? No? No, this is a grainy YouTube 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.680 to set to some slick new metal riffs. Now, the 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:21.199 boat appears to be sitting in like a river or 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.920 a lake. It's opaque freshwater, and each of the two 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.400 passengers sitting facing off the back of the boat are 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:32.160 holding a compound hunting bow with a knocked arrow, and 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.960 the driver then throttles up the engine. The boat starts 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.320 to move, and these lines of white churning wake peel 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:39.640 out the back of the boat and you can see 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.600 the waves coming out. And as this happens, dozens of 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.560 fish or maybe hundreds of fish begin to leap out 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.120 of the water into the air, by the looks of it, 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.200 sometimes flying above the heads of the passengers, and they 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.680 arc over the boat. Sometimes they fly right into somebody's 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.160 neck and slap them on the face. It fish hits 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:00.640 you in the back, or it lands flopping in the 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:03.840 driver's lap, And as you would expect based on the setup, 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.520 the passengers try to shoot the fish with their arrows 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.320 as they leap through the air. Uh. And other similar 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:14.000 videos you might scratch the bow and arrow and feature 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.480 just nets, people trying to catch the fish with nets 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.240 or shooting at them with shotguns, trying to hit him 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:22.120 with baseball bats or maybe a modified baseball bat with 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:27.440 nails in it, uh, pitchforks, etcetera. I might add that 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:29.600 in the very first video I watched that I mentioned, 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:31.920 the one with the compound bow, it was sort of 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.959 this fish human collision super cut with with the new 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:39.679 metal background music. It looks pretty dangerous, especially because there 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.400 are sometimes other boats in the water down range of 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.920 the bow fishers. So we are not recommending this behavior. Yeah, 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.920 it sounds sounds a bit reckless. But what's going on here? Why? 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.240 Why are these hundreds of fish flying through the air 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.520 to be shot? I need a better metaphor than like 0:12:56.600 --> 0:13:01.600 fish in a barrel, like like fish in outer space? Uh. Well, 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:06.120 the video identifies these very unfortunate vaulting fish as Asian carp, 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:09.720 and I can't confirm the identification through all the graininess. 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.720 But but this would make sense because some species of 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.679 so called Asian carp are known for this bizarre frenzy 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:20.720 jumping behavior in the presence of boats. So what are 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.000 Asian carp. Asian carp is not one species, but it's 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.840 a common group name applied to several species of carp 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:32.320 native to East and Southeast Asia, including waterways of Siberia, China, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:37.040 and Vietnam. And these species would be bighead carp, black carp, 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:41.440 grass carp, and silver carp. So carp belonged to the 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:45.480 freshwater fish family known as Cyprinids, and before the Asian 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:48.000 carp were introduced a couple of decades ago, there there 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.320 were already carp in North America that were considered kind 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.640 of a benign nuisance species. But several species now known 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.280 as Asian carp were introduced the United States in the 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.800 nineteen sixties and seventies, and originally they were contained They 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:06.160 were contained in southern aquaculture and sewage treatment enclosures I 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:09.360 think in Arkansas, originally saw and so the idea was 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.680 that these imported carp would help control contaminants in these areas. 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.800 For example, they'd swim around and eat algae out of 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.160 ponds that were being used as fish farms, like for 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:25.160 catfish farming. But Flooding events, of course, often connect waters 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.440 that are not inherently connected, and so flooding allowed these 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.480 non native species to escape their farms and enclosures and 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.520 spread into natural waterways around the Mississippi watershed. And now 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.280 they're all over the place. They're spread all over freshwater 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.400 fisheries in the Midwest and beyond there in the Mississippi, 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.280 they're in the Illinois River. And a lot of people 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.760 are worried about these and consider them uh an invasive 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.880 species since they can represent a threat to native wildlife. 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:56.320 They reproduce quickly, they grow quickly, they supposedly degrade the 0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:00.200 quality of aquatic environments, and they tend to outcompete their 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.120 fish UH and I've seen estimates that they can some 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.840 of these species consume about of their own body weight 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.520 every day, but they don't necessarily prey on other fish. Instead, 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.760 they're mostly plankton and algae feeders, which still is a 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.320 big problem because that's the bottom of the food chain, right, 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:19.720 That's what everything has to eat in order to work 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:21.680 its way up the food chain and get that energy 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.720 to survive. So they're causing problems for every organism everywhere 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:29.400 along the line. And so why do they jump, Well, 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:32.240 the big head carp in the silver carp can both jump, 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.920 but it's the silver carp in particular that's just notorious 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.880 for frequently having these frenzies where they leap out of 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.920 the water all over the place. And the commonly accepted 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:46.760 explanation for why they do it is pretty simple. It's 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.080 the main one that came to your mind when you 0:15:49.080 --> 0:15:51.200 were thinking about the mullet. First. It's that they're scared. 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.280 They're leaping out of the water as an escape mechanism 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.360 triggered by a threatening stimulus, like the roar of a 0:15:57.400 --> 0:16:00.800 boat motor. So somebody revs up their engine, they get 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:03.960 their their arrows knocked, and the fish here that sound, 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.200 and they start leaping all over the place. And once 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.880 one starts leaping, all of them start leaping. So that 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.800 sounds like a pretty funny situation. And I will admit 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.480 seeing these images of fish just flapping all over the 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.840 place through the air, slapping people in the back of 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:22.560 the head, leaving a big slimy streak across somebody's like 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.120 chin and throat because they slap up under there. Uh, 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:28.360 it sounds funny, but when you think about what it's 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.320 actually like to be in the middle of it. It 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:33.760 can get kind of scary because the big head and 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.320 silver carp were known to jump about three meters or 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.040 about ten ft vertically out of the water about six 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:43.000 meters or twenty ft horizontally across the surface. Uh. Silver 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.240 carp tend to weigh up to about twenty pounds. Big 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:49.200 head carp commonly wigh about twice that, but in rare cases, 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.240 these fish can reportedly grow very large, up to around 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.320 a hundred pounds. So think of like a hundred pound 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.800 object flying at you out of the water, especially if 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.240 you're moving at a rapid speed. Also, uh, just do 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.080 the quick new Tony and physics in your head. That 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.920 can be a heavy impact. Now. I found one survey 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.760 of people who used the Illinois River in two thousand 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:12.720 ten and two thousand eleven, and it was a small 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:14.800 sample size, so don't read too much into this, but 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:19.879 it found this was hilarious to me. Sixty five of 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.960 residents from these Illinois River sites who used the river 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:27.080 had seen Asian carp jump. Okay, but of those people 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.560 who had seen a carp jump, almost three quarters of 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.439 them had been hit by a car um And so 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.120 if you've seen a carp jump, chances are a carp 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:40.800 has slammed into you. Nine of them sustained injuries and 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:46.159 reported uh sustained watercraft damage from the Asian carp And 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:49.639 there's just one example I want to give of the 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.040 kinds of injuries these things can cause. I found a 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.040 kt v I local news story from St. Louis from 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.439 last year August, and it tells the story of this 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.800 guy named Jordan Fiedler who got his face messed up 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:05.159 real bad by some Asian carp while inner tubing along 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.280 a channel in the Mississippi. So, according to the story, 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:10.720 his father was driving the boat and he was riding 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.160 in an inner tube behind it, and then the fish 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.639 start leaping. They jump up all over the place, and 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.479 one hits him in the face and a quote he 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.600 gave his quote, I knew something was wrong. I felt 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:25.000 my nose and it was way over here. So Uh. 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.760 The impact fractured his nose, It dented his forehead, shattered 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:32.280 bones in his eye sockets and above his eyebrow. Uh, 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:33.920 and he had to undergo a three and a half 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:37.040 hour surgery to install a piece of mesh and screws 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.879 to fix the shape of his skull. So this is 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:44.400 no small injury. This is this devastating fish impact. If 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.640 nobody has made a Jaws style movie about carp yet, 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.919 about the leaping carp, I think they should. This is 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.960 the real Sharknado, except it's not a shark. This is Carponado. Well, hopefully, 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:57.760 I'm really hoping someone will take this whole episode is 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:02.919 inspiration and maybe it'll be an overall jumping fish harm movie. 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:05.679 All the various examples we throw out here, it's the 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:11.640 fish version of the birds. Maybe yeah, the fishes, uh fish. Weirdly, though, 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.919 as mundane as carp may seem, they actually also have 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.720 a mythological significance. I bet you didn't think that we'd 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.600 wrap some some mythology into this episode, But it's I 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:23.919 really yeah, I didn't even think about it, and normally 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:26.120 I'm I'm all about finding it. I didn't even think 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:29.119 to look. Well, apparently the jumping ability of carp has 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:33.320 a cultural and slight mythological significance in Chinese tradition. So 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:38.480 there's a story in Chinese mythology of carp swimming upstream, 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:41.879 and that if a carp swimming upstream is able to 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:44.960 jump over a waterfall that's known as the dragon gate. 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:48.959 That carp will transform into a dragon, and with that 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.000 comes all of the symbolic uplift that applies. Right, you know, 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:56.119 the dragon is a is a majestic regal creature associated 0:19:56.160 --> 0:20:00.280 with power and with with grandeur and and with the 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.680 the imperial authority. Basically and flight, yes, and fly there 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:08.480 you go. So apparently, the expression of quote a carp 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.480 that jumps over the dragon gate commonly signifies a person 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:15.600 who accomplishes some feet that leads to like a sudden 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.800 improvement in life status, such as passing exams at university 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:23.040 or acquiring some coveted government position. It's like, if you 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:27.320 get a major life upgrade due to some some achievement 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:30.159 of yours, you're a carp who has jumped the dragon 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:35.439 gate and hopefully not smashed anybody's face. Onywhere Alright? What? Everyone? 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:37.880 Keep that myth in mind, because I feel like we're 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:40.960 going to get back to some of these ideas with 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:42.960 some of our later examples. We're gonna take a quick 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.400 break and when we come back, we're gonna look at salmon, 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.240 We're gonna look at swordfish, we're gonna look at sturgeons 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:58.159 and ultimately the flying fish itself. All right, we're back. Okay, 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:00.680 So before the break, we were talking about the mythological 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.480 symbology of carp swimming upstream trying to leap over that 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.160 waterfall and turn into a mighty dragon. But of course 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.560 carp are not the only fish that struggle mightily to 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:15.200 progress upstream against the current, even leaping over rapids and waterfalls. Yeah. Indeed, 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.399 what is one of the most iconic images of leaping fish, 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:22.560 like a perfect like nature documentary image. It's the salmon. 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:26.080 It's the salmon going upstream to spawn, leaping over the rapids, 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:29.520 and a bear just grab you know what I mean. Yeah, indeed, 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:32.080 that's the bare version of the people trying to hit 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:34.480 a carp with a baseball bat with nails in it. 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.320 It's just the bear's claw swiping at the salmon as 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:40.600 it flies over the rapids. Yeah, this is uh so, 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:43.960 so let's break down exactly what's happening here, um, because 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:45.560 it's it's pretty amazing. It's easy to take it for 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:48.200 granted when you've seen it so many times, but salmon 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:50.959 has been their early lives in freshwater rivers and then 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:53.840 they swim out to sea to the salt water to 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:56.960 feed and grow. But when spawning time comes, they engage 0:21:57.000 --> 0:21:59.640 in what we cause salmon rhyme and what grizzly bears 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:03.040 of course called like a seafood buffet, right. Uh. They 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:06.600 so the fish travel upstream to their natal spawning grounds, 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:09.080 they spawn, and then they die, and then the nutrients 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:12.000 in their bodies washed downstream to the estuaries. So it's 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:15.280 you know, it's it's kind of an elegant um practice here, 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:19.320 but making it upstream is quite a journey, especially when 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:23.760 you're having to deal with rapids and waterfalls. Um, you know, 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:27.800 no dragon gates, but still some significant challenges there. Uh. 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:30.280 And so they leap out of the water, they jump 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:34.520 sometimes up to twelve ft or three point six five meters. 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:38.560 Now not only they have to contend not only the bears, 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:43.440 but also man. Humans have have shown a tremendous ability, 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:48.320 of course, to alter natural waterways, to install dams, bridges, 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:51.280 what have you. Oh. Yeah, this is actually figured into 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:55.000 people trying to control the spread of carp like silvery arp, 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:57.800 the jumping carp in American waterways. So you've got these 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:02.760 carp moving slowly upstream and to prevent them from spreading 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:04.600 even further. Some people have said, well, we need to 0:23:04.600 --> 0:23:07.480 construct barriers of some kind, but these have to be 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.359 some pretty tall barriers, right, because these things can you know, 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:13.480 jump tin tin feet high and twenty feet long, So 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:17.000 that would have to be a serious barrier to prevent 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:19.280 the carp from progressing. Yeah, and then what do you 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:22.280 do about other creatures that have a natural right? Are 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:26.240 you gonna install like a border guard, keep the carp out, 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:29.199 but make sure the right creatures moved through. I don't know, 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.639 it's tough. I saw one solution that was literally an 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:36.480 electrified fence in the water, where people installed a little 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:39.760 devices that put electrical current in the river to prevent 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:42.720 the carp from swimming by well, you know with the 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:46.320 with the salmon. In the case of dams and other structures, Uh, 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:49.800 they actually we actually sometimes create the fish ladders or 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:52.879 fish ways to help them out. And these these can 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:55.440 be quite interesting because sometimes they essentially look like nothing 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:58.280 more than a series of buckets that they can splash 0:23:58.359 --> 0:24:00.919 and jump in and out of. Who actually make it 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:05.119 over whatever the obstacle is, Yeah, a watery staircase sorts. 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:07.280 But it's a cool idea because because as as we 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:09.359 pointed out, like, not only is it important for the 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:12.360 for the salmon to actually reach their destination, but it actually, 0:24:12.520 --> 0:24:15.040 you know, their ultimate death up there ends up having 0:24:15.040 --> 0:24:17.960 playing an important role in the overall ecology of the river. 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:21.000 Isn't this also why the salmon cannon was invented? Yes, 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:24.600 I believe it was to help help the salmon get upstream. 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:27.280 I don't remember whatever became of that, Yeah, I don't 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:29.399 know if that became a standard or if that was 0:24:29.440 --> 0:24:32.280 just kind of a flash in the pan. Alright, So 0:24:32.359 --> 0:24:34.760 one thing that comes to my mind is that, of 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:36.720 course a carp can jump up out of the water 0:24:36.800 --> 0:24:39.000 hit you in the face, and that can cause some injury. 0:24:39.040 --> 0:24:43.080 But they're also fish much bigger than carp that do jump, 0:24:43.359 --> 0:24:47.840 that's right, and some of them jump with tremendous speed. Um. 0:24:48.000 --> 0:24:52.160 I'm thinking, of course about the mighty sword fish, which 0:24:52.840 --> 0:24:57.320 is it's it's a scientific name is zay FEUs gladius, 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:00.680 which basically is just the word sword repeated in two 0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:04.679 different languages. So like, basically, were so excited about swordfish 0:25:04.720 --> 0:25:07.800 looking like a human murder weapon that we just call 0:25:07.880 --> 0:25:11.919 them sword sword. It's like a little kid. Yeah, and 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:16.640 of course they're just uh, it's it's basically just a 0:25:16.640 --> 0:25:19.639 a bill that they are bill fish. There they are 0:25:19.720 --> 0:25:25.640 other billfish with with bills that resemble swords. Others resemble bills. 0:25:25.640 --> 0:25:28.439 Sometimes they look like saws. Uh, they're a number of 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:33.119 different species um. And interestingly enough evidence seems to support 0:25:33.160 --> 0:25:35.840 the theory that the pointy end is more about speed 0:25:35.880 --> 0:25:38.840 than anything. So it's not a weapon. It's more of 0:25:38.880 --> 0:25:42.320 an aerodynamic design. Right. There's actually a weak point in 0:25:42.359 --> 0:25:44.600 the skull where the sword meets the skull, and it 0:25:44.640 --> 0:25:48.320 prevents them from being a proper javelin like if they 0:25:48.359 --> 0:25:50.760 if they were to hit something too great a speed, 0:25:50.800 --> 0:25:53.080 it would just snap. And the weak point is due 0:25:53.080 --> 0:25:57.040 to a lubricating gland that reduces drag and increases speed. 0:25:57.080 --> 0:26:00.800 Like it basically pumps out oil um it like spreads 0:26:00.800 --> 0:26:04.800 out through vessels, pumps out this this lubricant that lubricates 0:26:04.840 --> 0:26:06.840 the sword and the whole in the thing's whole head 0:26:07.520 --> 0:26:09.840 that allows it to just sort of slip through the 0:26:09.880 --> 0:26:12.879 water a little bit faster. So before the swordfish races, 0:26:12.960 --> 0:26:17.640 they're sitting there looving up their swords essentially and there 0:26:17.680 --> 0:26:19.280 you know, I think there are still some arguments that 0:26:19.280 --> 0:26:23.159 it may to certain degrees, have you know, have have 0:26:23.320 --> 0:26:26.920 some sort of defensive capability as well, especially if you're 0:26:26.920 --> 0:26:29.240 talking about a slashing as opposed to a full on 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:33.480 like um uh you know, ramming speed type of a 0:26:33.520 --> 0:26:37.280 stabbing maneuver. There might be a secondary use or yeah, 0:26:37.400 --> 0:26:39.760 sort of you use it in a pinch, yeah, because 0:26:39.800 --> 0:26:43.240 it's certainly it certainly is that it certainly can be dangerous, 0:26:43.280 --> 0:26:45.840 as we'll discuss here. But the speeds the big thing, 0:26:45.880 --> 0:26:49.680 and then and indeed, swordfish are generally ranked like the 0:26:49.720 --> 0:26:53.600 third fastest fish. They're only surpassed by the black marlin 0:26:53.680 --> 0:26:56.200 and the sail fish, both of which are are other 0:26:56.520 --> 0:27:02.120 types of billfish swordfish. The estimates vary on all these 0:27:02.359 --> 0:27:05.960 people will get into fights over exact speeds, but generally 0:27:06.080 --> 0:27:09.400 you're looking at the black marlin. It clocked around possibly 0:27:09.440 --> 0:27:15.160 eighty miles per hour. Yeah, dye kilometers per hour. Uh, 0:27:15.240 --> 0:27:18.679 that's like twice as fast as your average boat can go. 0:27:19.400 --> 0:27:21.159 But but then again, these are these are creatures that 0:27:21.160 --> 0:27:24.880 are living in the open water. They they're dealing with 0:27:24.960 --> 0:27:27.280 a lot of the vast distances, so they have room 0:27:27.359 --> 0:27:31.680 to build up that speed. Um sailfish sixty nine miles 0:27:31.680 --> 0:27:35.119 per hour, and the swordfish comes in at a you know, 0:27:35.320 --> 0:27:40.159 a more conservative sixty miles per hour kilometers per hour. 0:27:40.359 --> 0:27:43.760 But again people will argue back and forth on these stats. No, 0:27:43.960 --> 0:27:47.239 that's still amazingly fast considering no water. I mean, when 0:27:47.280 --> 0:27:50.040 you think about moving through water, all the friction that's 0:27:50.359 --> 0:27:52.800 that's there, I mean, that's crazy. And they've evolved to 0:27:52.840 --> 0:27:55.000 deal with that friction about it just about as well 0:27:55.040 --> 0:27:58.040 as any sea animal is going to manage. Of course, 0:27:58.040 --> 0:28:00.200 they're also known to use that intense speed to roll 0:28:00.240 --> 0:28:04.960 themselves completely out of the water. Now why one of 0:28:05.000 --> 0:28:07.840 the one of the things about swordfish in particular is 0:28:07.880 --> 0:28:12.280 that they're rare creatures, they're elusive creatures, and that they 0:28:12.280 --> 0:28:14.800 don't do well in captivity, so it's it's hard to 0:28:14.800 --> 0:28:17.320 really study them in their ways. But they are susceptible, 0:28:17.440 --> 0:28:20.240 like everything else, to parasites. So there is a theory 0:28:20.240 --> 0:28:23.879 that they may be trying to dislodge parasites. Uh, in 0:28:23.920 --> 0:28:29.159 particular parasites um in particular that the paper I was 0:28:29.160 --> 0:28:32.240 looking at mentioned remoras, which are of course sucker fish 0:28:32.600 --> 0:28:36.600 that feed on other parents that feed on ectoparasites. So 0:28:36.960 --> 0:28:39.560 essentially these things might be bothering them at the very least, 0:28:39.600 --> 0:28:44.120 they're they're they're screwing with their streamlined body right there. 0:28:44.160 --> 0:28:46.680 They're messing up their speed potentially. So perhaps they're jumping 0:28:46.680 --> 0:28:49.680 out trying to dislodge those remoras, or if they have 0:28:49.720 --> 0:28:52.840 a fisherman's like a sports fisherman's hook in them, well 0:28:52.960 --> 0:28:56.480 that's something they're probably trying to dislodge as well. And 0:28:56.560 --> 0:28:59.480 that's certainly the iconic scene, right somebody gets a swordfish 0:28:59.520 --> 0:29:01.560 on the hook sleeping out of the water. Yeah, well, 0:29:01.560 --> 0:29:03.360 I mean you can see that at a much lower level. 0:29:03.400 --> 0:29:06.520 Just imagine you've probably seen footage of a bass fisher 0:29:07.080 --> 0:29:08.960 or something like that with a bass on the line 0:29:08.960 --> 0:29:11.480 and it jumps out of the water. Yeah. Okay, Well, 0:29:11.520 --> 0:29:14.040 I know the question on everybody's mind here. Has anybody 0:29:14.040 --> 0:29:17.440 ever been impaled by a swordfish by the sword the 0:29:17.520 --> 0:29:22.320 sword sword? Yes, indeed they have. Um, now it's it's 0:29:22.360 --> 0:29:25.840 a rare occurrence, just as these human interactions with swordfish 0:29:25.920 --> 0:29:29.120 are already kind of a rare thing. Right, Um, you know, 0:29:29.160 --> 0:29:31.480 people fish for them, but still they're elusive. So this 0:29:31.600 --> 0:29:34.680 is didn't something to get really worked up about, right, 0:29:34.800 --> 0:29:37.280 You're you're probably gonna be putting yourself in the position 0:29:37.400 --> 0:29:41.280 to to have the outside chance of this occurring. But 0:29:42.080 --> 0:29:45.400 as of two thousand seven, there were no recorded attacks. 0:29:45.520 --> 0:29:47.680 And I put that in quotes because these are not 0:29:47.680 --> 0:29:51.520 creatures that eat humans or would have seemed seemingly attack humans. 0:29:51.520 --> 0:29:54.440 Any incidents seem to have been more or less accidental. 0:29:55.160 --> 0:29:59.160 But as of two thousand seven, there were no no 0:29:59.480 --> 0:30:02.400 recorded attacks that it actually resulted in death, though the 0:30:02.440 --> 0:30:06.760 paper in question, Swordfish Attack and Death by Penetrating head Injury, 0:30:07.200 --> 0:30:11.320 did outline one such incident. And then in two thousand fifteen, 0:30:11.440 --> 0:30:15.040 a deep sea fishing charter captain in Hawaii was fatally 0:30:15.080 --> 0:30:17.440 stabbed in the chest by one while trying to capture 0:30:17.440 --> 0:30:20.160 it with a spear gun. So basically it thrashed around 0:30:20.240 --> 0:30:23.960 after the spear hit the fish, and then it managed 0:30:24.000 --> 0:30:28.800 to skewer him in the chest. So it's a rare occurrence. 0:30:28.880 --> 0:30:30.719 But with a with a sword like that, with a 0:30:30.800 --> 0:30:34.720 large fish flopping around, um jumping out of the water, 0:30:34.880 --> 0:30:37.160 if you're close to it, yes, you run the risk 0:30:37.440 --> 0:30:40.920 of being run through. But even in this one incident 0:30:41.000 --> 0:30:42.840 mentioned here, it sounds like this guy was kind of 0:30:43.800 --> 0:30:45.320 I don't want to say he was asking for it 0:30:45.520 --> 0:30:48.000 he put him. Basically, he just put himself in in 0:30:48.080 --> 0:30:52.600 close proximity to a large sharp fish, and there's gonna 0:30:52.640 --> 0:30:56.080 you're rolling the diet when that happens, right, You don't 0:30:56.080 --> 0:30:59.520 wrestle with a unicorn exactly. But then again, of course 0:31:00.120 --> 0:31:02.520 there are other very large fish that jump as well. 0:31:02.920 --> 0:31:05.640 The In fact, as we saw with the carp example, 0:31:06.000 --> 0:31:09.040 you don't need a spike or a sword sword in 0:31:09.160 --> 0:31:12.080 order to do some damage when you run into somebody, right, 0:31:12.120 --> 0:31:17.200 all you need is a high powered recreation vessel and 0:31:17.360 --> 0:31:20.680 uh and and a hundred pound carp perhaps, But what 0:31:20.760 --> 0:31:22.560 if it was even bigger. What if you were talking 0:31:22.560 --> 0:31:24.400 instead of a hundred pound carp What if you were 0:31:24.400 --> 0:31:28.960 talking about, say, Florida's Gulf sturgeon, which if you've ever 0:31:29.000 --> 0:31:32.160 seen a sturgeon and aquarium, these they look like an 0:31:32.280 --> 0:31:36.640 armored tank or something. You know, they're they're rather intimidating, 0:31:36.640 --> 0:31:38.240 and then they get huge. They can come in it 0:31:38.760 --> 0:31:41.440 at the Florida Gulf sturgeon in particular, can come in 0:31:41.400 --> 0:31:44.040 at eight ft long two point five meters in, up 0:31:44.040 --> 0:31:49.120 to two hundred pounds or in weight. And yes, they 0:31:49.120 --> 0:31:51.760 sometimes jump out of the water up to six feet 0:31:51.960 --> 0:31:54.720 out of the water and occasionally that We're not only 0:31:54.760 --> 0:31:57.720 talking the risk of injury here. There there have been 0:31:58.000 --> 0:32:01.560 lethal occurrences of sturgeon in pack Oh man, well, I 0:32:01.560 --> 0:32:03.360 got to hear about that in a second. But this 0:32:03.440 --> 0:32:06.600 is weird to me because maybe I assume sturgeon must 0:32:06.600 --> 0:32:09.440 be able to move fast. Uh, if this is the case, 0:32:09.480 --> 0:32:11.680 but I've never seen a sturgeon move quickly. I've seen 0:32:11.680 --> 0:32:16.800 sturgeon and aquariums and they always seem incredibly chilled out 0:32:17.040 --> 0:32:21.160 and very languid fish just just hanging there, I mean, 0:32:21.320 --> 0:32:23.680 barely moving at all. Yeah, it is I have to 0:32:23.720 --> 0:32:25.920 admit that too. Like seeing them in aquariums are always 0:32:25.960 --> 0:32:29.280 really interesting, kind of intimidating, but very still. But yeah, 0:32:29.320 --> 0:32:34.240 they jumped in two thousand fifteen, In fact, one one 0:32:34.240 --> 0:32:37.480 of these jumping sturgeons actually killed a five year old 0:32:37.480 --> 0:32:40.320 girl when I left out of water into her family's 0:32:40.360 --> 0:32:42.720 fishing boat. It and it also injured her mother and 0:32:42.760 --> 0:32:46.560 her brother as well. In two thousand seven, nine people 0:32:46.720 --> 0:32:49.760 were injured in a collision with a sturgeon resultant, and 0:32:49.760 --> 0:32:53.040 this was in Florida, resulting in warning signs that were 0:32:53.080 --> 0:32:56.200 posted to encourage slower motor boat and jet ski speeds. 0:32:56.640 --> 0:32:59.440 So yeah, you have a two hundred pound fish flying 0:32:59.440 --> 0:33:01.239 out of the wall or up to six feet out 0:33:01.240 --> 0:33:04.360 of the water. And then you have a motor boat, 0:33:04.880 --> 0:33:07.200 you know, moving at high speeds as well. That's where 0:33:07.520 --> 0:33:11.320 these possibilities present themselves. Okay, but fish this big, why 0:33:11.360 --> 0:33:13.520 do they jump out of the water. Well, it's remained 0:33:13.520 --> 0:33:15.720 a bit of a mystery, but we have a few 0:33:16.160 --> 0:33:18.520 familiar theories as well as one that's kind of new 0:33:18.600 --> 0:33:22.800 here for our discussion here. So, first of all, all 0:33:22.840 --> 0:33:25.719 species of sturgeon will jump at times. The golf sturgeon 0:33:25.800 --> 0:33:27.760 is known to jump at two different times of the 0:33:27.840 --> 0:33:30.960 year in the rivers, during July and August and early 0:33:30.960 --> 0:33:33.400 in the offshore feeding period. So one theory is they 0:33:33.440 --> 0:33:38.720 do it to escape predators, but it's a big exactly, 0:33:38.760 --> 0:33:41.600 it's kind of a lame theory because the larger sturgeon 0:33:41.720 --> 0:33:45.760 do not have predators. Um. Another theory is that they 0:33:45.800 --> 0:33:48.800 do it for fun. And this is when I see 0:33:48.840 --> 0:33:51.120 mentioned with dolphins, and maybe we'll save that one for 0:33:51.120 --> 0:33:54.640 another another discussion. Well, I don't want to be unfairly 0:33:54.680 --> 0:33:58.360 prejudiced against the uh. I don't know the intellectual capabilities 0:33:58.400 --> 0:34:01.160 of fish, because as we learned with our birds episode. 0:34:01.200 --> 0:34:05.320 Sometimes you underestimate what other animal minds are capable of. 0:34:05.360 --> 0:34:08.040 But I tend to think of play as something that's 0:34:08.080 --> 0:34:12.239 more associated with more complex mammalian nervous systems, which is 0:34:12.239 --> 0:34:15.000 why it makes sense with with dolphins. You know, kind 0:34:15.000 --> 0:34:18.680 of intelligent mammals. Fish, I don't know, are they mentally 0:34:18.719 --> 0:34:21.719 complex enough to play? Yeah? I mean plus, it's also 0:34:21.880 --> 0:34:24.239 it comes down to economics. I was reading some thoughts 0:34:24.280 --> 0:34:27.600 on this from biologist Ken Sulak, and he pointed out 0:34:27.640 --> 0:34:30.719 that the jumping, especially for a massive sturgeon, it's an 0:34:30.840 --> 0:34:33.560 energy expenditure, so there has to be a trade off 0:34:33.640 --> 0:34:39.200 and behavioral importance, you know, beyond mere fun um. He 0:34:39.239 --> 0:34:43.040 actually theorizes that this is a form of communication with sturgeons, 0:34:43.040 --> 0:34:46.360 so theyre when they jump out and and and splash. 0:34:46.400 --> 0:34:49.480 It creates a distinct sound slapping noise, but they also 0:34:49.880 --> 0:34:53.680 um announced and they also create a small sound before 0:34:53.880 --> 0:34:57.920 and after um the jump. It's kind of like they 0:34:57.960 --> 0:35:00.560 produced kind of like clicks and drumming noise is so 0:35:00.600 --> 0:35:02.840 it's kind of a clicker a drumming noise to jump 0:35:02.960 --> 0:35:06.120 splash another sound, and he thinks that they might be 0:35:06.200 --> 0:35:09.120 announcing their presence in position to the larger groups. So 0:35:09.120 --> 0:35:12.520 it's like the mooing of a cow, which which I 0:35:12.520 --> 0:35:15.960 think is an interesting theory. Well, this, this does, this 0:35:16.000 --> 0:35:18.919 communication theory plays into something that I'm going to mention later, 0:35:19.040 --> 0:35:22.600 especially when we talk about sharks. Yes, and we'll get 0:35:22.600 --> 0:35:24.759 two sharks in a minute, but before we do, we 0:35:24.800 --> 0:35:30.080 have another potentially dangerous, perhaps even more worrisome for half 0:35:30.120 --> 0:35:34.239 our listeners fish to contend with. Okay, so you may 0:35:34.239 --> 0:35:37.440 have heard this story. A man is walking in the 0:35:37.520 --> 0:35:41.160 jungles of the Amazon and he realizes that, oh man, 0:35:41.239 --> 0:35:43.680 I had so much coffee this morning. I need to 0:35:43.719 --> 0:35:47.759 evacuate some urine. Okay. So he wades knee deep into 0:35:47.760 --> 0:35:49.759 the waters of the river, and he un zips and 0:35:49.840 --> 0:35:53.560 begins to relieve himself into the water. Question, why does 0:35:53.600 --> 0:35:55.759 he wade into the water before he You're in It's 0:35:55.920 --> 0:35:57.840 I had that same question. But this is how the 0:35:57.840 --> 0:36:01.160 story goes. Okay, So for if two seconds, this activity 0:36:01.239 --> 0:36:05.080 proceeds as normal, but then, to his horror, he sees 0:36:05.160 --> 0:36:09.160 a tiny, barely perceptible shape leap from the surface of 0:36:09.200 --> 0:36:14.920 the water into his urethra Oh Okay. In an alternate 0:36:15.040 --> 0:36:19.400 version of the story, it uh supposedly swims up the 0:36:19.520 --> 0:36:24.600 column of his urine stream and into his urethra, and 0:36:24.640 --> 0:36:28.000 then once inside there, it spreads this collection of barbed 0:36:28.120 --> 0:36:32.799 spines like an umbrella opening inside your urethra and just 0:36:32.920 --> 0:36:37.760 lodges itself there and begins to feast on the flesh. 0:36:38.080 --> 0:36:40.520 And eventually he has to he either dies or he 0:36:40.520 --> 0:36:43.839 has to undergo a really really undesirable surgery to get 0:36:43.840 --> 0:36:47.000 it removed. Well, that's horrible. I think we've all heard 0:36:47.120 --> 0:36:49.719 versions of this before, right you. You may remember a 0:36:49.840 --> 0:36:52.640 version of this from some dialogue between Eric Stolt's and 0:36:52.719 --> 0:36:57.759 John Voight in the movie Anaconda. Okay, I vaguely remember that. 0:36:57.800 --> 0:36:59.800 I tend to remember the growth out moments of that 0:37:00.000 --> 0:37:03.640 know more. But yes, oh, I mostly remember John Voight's accent. 0:37:03.800 --> 0:37:05.799 What is his accent supposed to be? It's like a 0:37:05.880 --> 0:37:09.800 cross between South American and and Count Dracula. That's great, 0:37:11.040 --> 0:37:13.839 But but is this story really true? Does anything like 0:37:13.880 --> 0:37:16.399 this happen? Can a tiny fish jump out of the 0:37:16.400 --> 0:37:20.600 water and into somebody's urethra or swim up your urine 0:37:20.680 --> 0:37:26.080 stream into your urethra? Uh? Well, the fish allegedly described 0:37:26.080 --> 0:37:29.520 in this story as agreed by most authorities to be 0:37:30.000 --> 0:37:33.759 in fact the Vandelia sarosa, which is a type of 0:37:33.840 --> 0:37:38.520 parasitic catfish also known as a vampire catfish, but it's 0:37:38.600 --> 0:37:43.239 commonly known in the sort of legendary literature as the candaru. 0:37:44.320 --> 0:37:47.560 These are the facts about Vandelia so vandelias, this tiny 0:37:47.640 --> 0:37:50.680 parasitic catfish usually about an inch or two inches, you know, 0:37:50.800 --> 0:37:53.600 two and a half or to five centimeters long, nearly 0:37:53.640 --> 0:37:57.680 invisible in the water, especially when it hasn't fed recently. Uh. 0:37:57.719 --> 0:38:01.080 And it occupies the tropical freshwater verse of South America 0:38:01.280 --> 0:38:05.240 Amazon River basin, and it drinks the blood of other fish. 0:38:05.360 --> 0:38:08.279 So it's regular emo is that you're you're a goldfish 0:38:08.360 --> 0:38:11.000 or something like that, swimming around in the river, and 0:38:11.440 --> 0:38:16.239 the kangaroo or the vandalia scientifically swims into into your 0:38:16.280 --> 0:38:20.479 gills and anchors itself there with spines that line it's 0:38:20.600 --> 0:38:24.919 gill covers, and then it drinks your blood, becomes engorged, 0:38:25.000 --> 0:38:27.280 and then it swims away to the bottom to burrow 0:38:27.360 --> 0:38:31.600 in and digest the bottom of the waterway, right uh. 0:38:31.640 --> 0:38:33.879 And so when it enters the gills of the host fish, 0:38:34.000 --> 0:38:38.520 it bites at an a order artery ventroller dorsal, and 0:38:38.640 --> 0:38:41.400 it doesn't need to suck because actually the host's blood 0:38:41.400 --> 0:38:45.960 pressure just pumps blood into the candaroo's mouth. So instead 0:38:46.000 --> 0:38:48.319 of blood sucking, this animal is more like when you 0:38:48.400 --> 0:38:51.360 hook the lip of a balloon over a water faucet 0:38:51.440 --> 0:38:53.760 and then turn the water on to make a water balloon, 0:38:53.960 --> 0:38:56.720 is just letting itself fill up. Okay, So the idea 0:38:56.800 --> 0:39:00.000 here is that if it preyed on humans, obviously, swimming 0:39:00.080 --> 0:39:04.640 into someone's p hole is not it's it's design. This 0:39:04.680 --> 0:39:06.520 would be it would be like a like a port 0:39:06.560 --> 0:39:09.200 tape worm getting lost and winding up in your brain. 0:39:09.640 --> 0:39:12.759 He doesn't need that to happen, but it occurs accidentally. 0:39:12.880 --> 0:39:15.440 Right that this is a mistake for this animal. If 0:39:15.480 --> 0:39:18.120 if this is true and uh, and it's a it's 0:39:18.120 --> 0:39:20.800 a fatal mistake for the animal and sometimes for the person, 0:39:20.880 --> 0:39:23.480 according to the story. So those are the facts that 0:39:23.640 --> 0:39:26.759 just reported. Now there are also a bunch of claims 0:39:26.840 --> 0:39:29.880 that are commonly reported as fact, and these include that 0:39:29.920 --> 0:39:33.240 the kangaroo can swim up the urethra of a person 0:39:33.320 --> 0:39:36.160 or mammal that might urinate in the water. So the 0:39:36.800 --> 0:39:40.360 less unbelievable version is that mammals weighed fully into the 0:39:40.360 --> 0:39:43.920 water and begin to urinate once under the water, and 0:39:43.960 --> 0:39:47.319 the candaroo swims up one of their orifices, the ure 0:39:47.400 --> 0:39:50.880 throw or the vagina or the anus. Uh. It's commonly 0:39:50.920 --> 0:39:53.880 reported that this fish is attracted to the flow of urine, 0:39:53.960 --> 0:39:57.839 maybe because it's chemically similar to some chemicals that would 0:39:57.880 --> 0:40:01.040 come out of the gills of its host fish. More 0:40:01.080 --> 0:40:04.040 on that in a bit. And then once instip once 0:40:04.080 --> 0:40:07.440 inside you, it gets stuck, can't escape, dies obstructs the 0:40:07.440 --> 0:40:10.279 path of the urethra, you can't pee, and it has 0:40:10.320 --> 0:40:14.800 to get removed by surgery. Classical stories of this include 0:40:15.160 --> 0:40:18.640 lots of accounts of penile amputation. So you can see 0:40:18.640 --> 0:40:22.759 why this causes extreme distress for people getting into these waters. Yeah, 0:40:22.840 --> 0:40:24.439 and I can also see why a lot of this 0:40:24.560 --> 0:40:27.960 is sort of hinged on just creating a cringe e 0:40:28.120 --> 0:40:31.960 horror tail to share with with visitors. Say, oh, the 0:40:32.000 --> 0:40:34.480 officials swim up your pee hole and then we'll have 0:40:34.520 --> 0:40:38.600 to cut your penis off, and you know, so it's 0:40:38.640 --> 0:40:40.960 it's easy to see it is nothing more than that. Yeah. 0:40:41.040 --> 0:40:43.440 So there are two questions here. Number one is the 0:40:43.480 --> 0:40:47.319 general one to kinderoo actually swim up people's eurethras. Uh, 0:40:47.360 --> 0:40:50.240 and if so, do they perform this even more crazy 0:40:50.280 --> 0:40:53.440 sounding feat of either jumping from the water, this jumping 0:40:53.480 --> 0:40:57.360 fish tie in here, which isn't as crazy based on 0:40:57.400 --> 0:40:59.560 what we've been discussing. Lots of fish jumps, so it 0:40:59.680 --> 0:41:02.360 seems possible. Now, could it jump with such a degree 0:41:02.400 --> 0:41:05.839 of accuracy that it jumps straight into your urethra that's 0:41:05.920 --> 0:41:09.120 kind of tough to imagine, or the even crazier one 0:41:09.160 --> 0:41:13.120 that it swims up the stream of your urine. I 0:41:13.200 --> 0:41:16.040 got some doubts about that. But are there any medical 0:41:16.080 --> 0:41:19.000 cases of this? And in the cases of the medical literature, well, 0:41:19.040 --> 0:41:23.520 there's one major report in the modern day that people 0:41:23.600 --> 0:41:28.520 refer to so in n a euro genital surgeon named n. R. 0:41:28.719 --> 0:41:33.480 Some odd who was working in Amazonia in Brazil, reportedly 0:41:33.520 --> 0:41:38.320 extracted a dead kinderu from a patient's penis. And according 0:41:38.320 --> 0:41:40.520 to the report of the patient's story, the patient was 0:41:40.640 --> 0:41:43.480 standing thigh deep in the water, urinating into the water 0:41:44.000 --> 0:41:47.160 with his penis above the water, and he reported that 0:41:47.160 --> 0:41:50.239 the fish jumped out of the water, swam up the 0:41:50.320 --> 0:41:53.759 stream of his urine and into his urethra. Now, I I, 0:41:54.239 --> 0:41:56.960 as I alluded to earlier, I'm really suspicious about the 0:41:57.000 --> 0:42:00.920 physics of the swimming up the urine stream. Yeah. It 0:42:01.360 --> 0:42:03.720 also makes me wonder if he did have something lodged 0:42:03.760 --> 0:42:07.080 in his in his uh urethra, like he oh, maybe 0:42:07.080 --> 0:42:10.600 he only became aware of it when he urinated and 0:42:10.760 --> 0:42:12.279 this and he just happened to be standing in the 0:42:12.280 --> 0:42:15.000 water and he just made the assumption that, oh, that's 0:42:15.040 --> 0:42:17.480 when it entered. Yeah, so we only have this second 0:42:17.560 --> 0:42:19.880 or I guess third hand report in this case, so 0:42:20.040 --> 0:42:23.680 it's hard to know exactly what happened. But imagine the idea, 0:42:23.840 --> 0:42:26.560 like physically, just try to think of the fluid mechanics 0:42:26.640 --> 0:42:29.239 of swimming up a stream of urine. It would be 0:42:29.320 --> 0:42:32.280 kind of like if you had imagine a really good swimmer, 0:42:32.320 --> 0:42:34.680 like an Olympic swimmer in a pool, and then you 0:42:34.760 --> 0:42:37.280 stand on the roof of a house over the pool 0:42:37.320 --> 0:42:40.120 and aim a fire hose at them and say, okay, 0:42:40.160 --> 0:42:43.600 swim up the stream of the fire hose. To me, uh, 0:42:43.840 --> 0:42:45.880 that just it doesn't seem to make any sense. It 0:42:45.840 --> 0:42:48.440 would be like swimming up a waterfall, where the salmon 0:42:48.560 --> 0:42:51.160 do not swim up a waterfall, but they can they 0:42:51.160 --> 0:42:53.359 can jump over, right, So I can believe it's much 0:42:53.440 --> 0:42:56.360 more likely that fish simply jumped out of the water 0:42:56.640 --> 0:42:59.320 and in this one in a million chance kind of way, 0:42:59.560 --> 0:43:04.000 happened to jump straight into this guy's unfortunate urethra, which 0:43:04.000 --> 0:43:07.799 we should say does expand during urination, So it kind 0:43:07.840 --> 0:43:13.279 of opens the possibility there, both figuratively and I guess literally. So. 0:43:13.560 --> 0:43:16.400 According to a BBC story I read on the candaroo 0:43:16.520 --> 0:43:20.680 legend um, the American marine scientist Stephen Spot met with 0:43:20.719 --> 0:43:24.000 some od the surgeon who supposedly removed the candaru from 0:43:24.000 --> 0:43:27.000 the guy uh in, and he met with this guy 0:43:27.000 --> 0:43:31.320 in to investigate, and he was shown pictures and video 0:43:31.440 --> 0:43:35.000 of the extraction. So a real surgery definitely took place. 0:43:35.120 --> 0:43:39.239 Some something was actually removed from this guy's urethra uh 0:43:39.280 --> 0:43:42.680 and there was a preserved specimen of the fish itself. 0:43:42.680 --> 0:43:46.680 But Spot wasn't entirely convinced for a few reasons. One was, 0:43:46.920 --> 0:43:50.520 um the physical mechanical problem I just mentioned in the 0:43:50.560 --> 0:43:54.160 patient's story. The other was the preserve specimen was a 0:43:54.200 --> 0:43:58.040 lot bigger than you'd expect a candiu to grow, which 0:43:58.640 --> 0:44:00.480 in one other source I read it is more than 0:44:00.520 --> 0:44:04.440 five inches long and almost half an inch wide. Can 0:44:04.480 --> 0:44:08.000 you also it was bigger than the thing we'd expect 0:44:08.040 --> 0:44:11.040 to find in your urethra. That also makes the story 0:44:11.200 --> 0:44:14.279 all the more horrific to envision. Yeah. Uh. And then 0:44:14.520 --> 0:44:18.000 the specimen also, according to Spot, did not show signs 0:44:18.000 --> 0:44:21.480 of having been lodged or removed as described. For example, 0:44:21.480 --> 0:44:24.920 it didn't have snipped off spines or anything. Uh. Then 0:44:24.960 --> 0:44:28.319 again Spot reported he didn't entirely dismiss the account either. 0:44:28.800 --> 0:44:32.120 At this point, many elements appear unlikely, but it's hard 0:44:32.280 --> 0:44:35.520 hard to know what really happened. Um. But as a 0:44:35.560 --> 0:44:37.759 side note that this sort of raises the question of 0:44:37.880 --> 0:44:41.719 kndio entering the urethra and and other body orfice is 0:44:42.000 --> 0:44:45.359 more generally right. So this has been widely reported as 0:44:45.400 --> 0:44:48.279 fact all throughout the literature, both scientific and popular, for 0:44:48.360 --> 0:44:51.520 a couple hundred years now, but a few critical writers 0:44:51.520 --> 0:44:53.839 have pointed out these accounts are kind of weird, like 0:44:53.920 --> 0:44:57.520 that they're almost always vague and second hand, it happened 0:44:57.560 --> 0:45:00.640 to somebody that I heard of somewhere up the river. 0:45:00.880 --> 0:45:04.439 Some guy in the next village had a candio swim 0:45:04.560 --> 0:45:08.760 or jump into his penis and and get lodged there. Um. 0:45:08.800 --> 0:45:12.279 And also supposedly one of the explanations for this. Uh, 0:45:12.360 --> 0:45:15.680 the kangaroo are attracted to the chemicals commonly found in 0:45:15.760 --> 0:45:19.040 human urine, such as urea that has been tested and 0:45:19.120 --> 0:45:22.600 found to be completely without merit. So Stephen Spot along 0:45:22.680 --> 0:45:25.560 with the guy mentioned earlier, along with colleagues Paulo Petrie 0:45:25.680 --> 0:45:30.360 and Jansen Zonon and published results of an experiment in 0:45:30.400 --> 0:45:33.759 two thousand one that found that Vandelia, these these parasitic 0:45:33.800 --> 0:45:37.400 catfishes under lab conditions just didn't care about the chemical 0:45:37.440 --> 0:45:40.320 attractants in the water at all. They were not interested 0:45:40.320 --> 0:45:44.240 in ammonia, amino acids, fresh fish slime, or human urine. 0:45:44.840 --> 0:45:47.160 No response, so they just didn't care. Instead, they seemed 0:45:47.160 --> 0:45:50.759 to hunt for hosts such as Amazon goldfish, mostly by sight. 0:45:51.080 --> 0:45:53.600 They saw them, said, those look like some good gills. 0:45:53.680 --> 0:45:57.399 I'm going to them. And uh. And fortunately somebody has 0:45:57.440 --> 0:45:59.759 actually tried to figure out if there's anything to all 0:45:59.760 --> 0:46:03.279 these stories. Uh. There's a paper in the Journal of 0:46:03.280 --> 0:46:08.120 Travel Medicine in by Erme Guard Bauer called candaru a 0:46:08.120 --> 0:46:12.040 little fish with bad habits need travel health professionals worry 0:46:12.239 --> 0:46:15.400 a review and so in this paper the least scandal 0:46:15.440 --> 0:46:19.000 as possible headline. I know, but Bauer essentially concluded that 0:46:19.040 --> 0:46:24.520 there there's probably nothing to these stories. Uh, there's they 0:46:24.680 --> 0:46:27.600 So there was an extensive review of all the available literature, 0:46:27.960 --> 0:46:30.879 and there's just not strong evidence that these fish pose 0:46:30.960 --> 0:46:33.800 a threat to humans. Instead, the record sort of indicates 0:46:33.800 --> 0:46:37.240 that these attacks are they're just always hearsay. The same 0:46:37.280 --> 0:46:40.480 stories get repeated over and over as if they're fact. 0:46:41.280 --> 0:46:44.160 And Bauer concludes by saying, you know, considering the range 0:46:44.200 --> 0:46:46.839 of this fish, it's all over the place, and and 0:46:46.920 --> 0:46:51.319 how how horrifying their habit is supposed to be, it 0:46:51.360 --> 0:46:54.040 seems like wouldn't we be hearing about this more often 0:46:54.080 --> 0:46:57.040 in the modern day, wouldn't we be encountering stories of 0:46:57.080 --> 0:47:01.080 this happening? Uh? And and there is almost nothing. There's 0:47:01.120 --> 0:47:03.759 just like that that those old stories that have been 0:47:03.800 --> 0:47:08.960 repeated for decades, and then there's this one disputable Yeah. 0:47:09.040 --> 0:47:10.960 I mean, the only counter argument I can think of 0:47:11.160 --> 0:47:14.759 is that since it's like a penile injury, that it 0:47:14.800 --> 0:47:18.480 would be underreported out of shame or embarrassment. But not 0:47:18.800 --> 0:47:22.160 if you factor in like the severity of the supposed 0:47:22.239 --> 0:47:25.759 severity of the infection. You know, I feel like this 0:47:25.840 --> 0:47:28.279 is the kind of thing that if there were a 0:47:28.320 --> 0:47:32.120 confirmed case where somebody went to a hospital and this 0:47:32.320 --> 0:47:35.680 was you know, became part of the medical literature. This 0:47:35.680 --> 0:47:37.360 would be this would be all over I f L 0:47:37.440 --> 0:47:39.919 science and everything, you know what I mean, everybody would 0:47:39.920 --> 0:47:43.160 be like, oh my god, I gotta fish up his penis. 0:47:43.200 --> 0:47:46.160 We've got to report the heck out of this. Yeah, 0:47:46.200 --> 0:47:48.439 and we just don't see that. Now that being said, 0:47:48.440 --> 0:47:50.480 there are plenty of other things that can harm your 0:47:50.520 --> 0:47:55.840 privates if you go waiting around in you know, Amazonian rivers. 0:47:56.560 --> 0:47:58.799 In fact, that is part of the explanation is that 0:47:59.080 --> 0:48:02.080 many of these story reason may be sort of garblings 0:48:03.040 --> 0:48:05.839 because a lot of them come from you know, colonial 0:48:06.000 --> 0:48:08.880 periods and in the Amazon and stuff like that, where 0:48:09.120 --> 0:48:12.280 there were language barriers between the people reporting the stories 0:48:12.320 --> 0:48:14.919 and then the and then the people writing them down 0:48:14.960 --> 0:48:18.120 and publishing them. So I don't know, I feel like 0:48:18.160 --> 0:48:21.160 there's a lot of room for legend and error. Yeah. Plus, 0:48:21.200 --> 0:48:22.839 I mean, if anyone out there, if you've ever had 0:48:22.880 --> 0:48:25.680 a U T I, your anary your ainary track infection, 0:48:26.160 --> 0:48:28.960 you you know that it can feel like a tiny 0:48:29.000 --> 0:48:32.640 barbed fish has swam inside you. So I could see 0:48:32.680 --> 0:48:40.320 where where such uncomfortable scenarios could lend themselves to creative interpretations. Okay, 0:48:40.400 --> 0:48:43.799 so what do we think on that Candaru leaping into 0:48:43.880 --> 0:48:51.040 your urethra? Not impossible, but seems unlikely. Let's get into sharks, 0:48:51.200 --> 0:48:54.200 because I think we've all seen these stunning images, some 0:48:54.360 --> 0:48:58.640 of the the photoshops of great white sharks leaping over the 0:48:58.680 --> 0:49:02.480 Golden gate Bridge, leaping out of Yeah, leaping over bridges, 0:49:02.520 --> 0:49:05.399 or at least managing to get their entire bodies out 0:49:05.480 --> 0:49:08.200 of the water in a way that just terrifies this 0:49:08.320 --> 0:49:10.520 because you look and you say, well, that's a monster 0:49:10.600 --> 0:49:13.040 of the water. But it is not allowed out of 0:49:13.040 --> 0:49:15.000 the water. It is not allowed up here in the air, 0:49:15.080 --> 0:49:18.319 because that just messes with with all of the guidelines 0:49:18.360 --> 0:49:20.680 that govern my safety. Yeah, I thought I was supposed 0:49:20.719 --> 0:49:22.920 to be safe in this boat. Well, in keeping with 0:49:22.960 --> 0:49:26.520 our theme of fish leaping at people in their watercraft, 0:49:27.120 --> 0:49:30.279 did you know that sometimes even great white sharks leap 0:49:30.320 --> 0:49:34.480 into boats entirely into Yeah. So in this case, as 0:49:34.520 --> 0:49:37.200 with others, this is not a situation of attempted predatory 0:49:37.280 --> 0:49:40.920 behavior towards the humans on the boat. It's not an attack. Uh, 0:49:40.960 --> 0:49:45.839 it's just very unfortunate coincidence. One example of this kind 0:49:45.840 --> 0:49:48.480 of story July two thousand eleven, I found a National 0:49:48.520 --> 0:49:51.880 Geographic news story covering one of these events. So in 0:49:52.000 --> 0:49:55.520 July two thousand eleven, there's a research vessel off Seal Island, 0:49:55.560 --> 0:49:57.600 off the coast of South Africa. And if you've seen 0:49:57.800 --> 0:50:01.120 videos of great white sharks jumping into the air out 0:50:01.160 --> 0:50:04.560 of the water, very likely that video came from around 0:50:04.600 --> 0:50:07.240 Seal Island in South Africa. This is one of the 0:50:07.280 --> 0:50:10.040 most famous places in the world to see this behavior 0:50:10.080 --> 0:50:14.600 among white sharks. So there's a research vessel in the 0:50:14.600 --> 0:50:18.320 waters out near this place, and a roughly five m 0:50:18.520 --> 0:50:21.360 or half ton great white shark jumps into the boat 0:50:21.520 --> 0:50:25.360 operated by these marine researchers, and it's in the boat. 0:50:25.440 --> 0:50:29.319 It's stuck on the deck beneath the walls in the boat, 0:50:29.400 --> 0:50:32.000 so it's thrashing around. Everybody had to get the heck 0:50:32.040 --> 0:50:34.120 away from it and try to figure out how to 0:50:34.160 --> 0:50:37.880 help it get back into the water so it wouldn't die. Robert, 0:50:37.920 --> 0:50:41.040 for your benefit, I have a picture here. It's just 0:50:41.120 --> 0:50:43.600 a shark in the boat. That is a big shark. 0:50:44.160 --> 0:50:46.080 This is not if you're if you're picturing like just 0:50:46.120 --> 0:50:50.680 a juvenile, small little aquarium shark. Huge shark uh. So, 0:50:50.840 --> 0:50:52.520 of course they couldn't get the shark out of the 0:50:52.560 --> 0:50:56.360 boat by hand, and so they attempted to drag it 0:50:56.400 --> 0:50:59.479 out with a rope and that failed, and then they 0:50:59.680 --> 0:51:02.200 so eventually they had to drive the boat back to 0:51:02.239 --> 0:51:04.360 the harbor, and they tried to lift it out of 0:51:04.360 --> 0:51:06.880 the boat with a crane, which was dangerous to do, 0:51:06.960 --> 0:51:08.680 but the shark was going to die, so they had 0:51:08.719 --> 0:51:11.680 to try it. Uh, and they so they lowered it 0:51:11.680 --> 0:51:14.319 back into the water. But the shark may be confused 0:51:14.400 --> 0:51:18.160 or injured from this, stranded itself on a harbor beach nearby. 0:51:18.280 --> 0:51:20.560 They attempted to push it back into the water by 0:51:20.600 --> 0:51:24.800 hand and that failed. So eventually they tied the animal 0:51:24.960 --> 0:51:27.520 to the side of a boat and drove it out 0:51:27.560 --> 0:51:31.400 to sea, and about half an hour after that, the 0:51:31.480 --> 0:51:34.760 sharks swam away. It swam away and seemed to recover. 0:51:34.960 --> 0:51:38.680 It slapped its tail. So nobody knows what happened after that, 0:51:38.800 --> 0:51:41.000 if it eventually went on to live and be okay, 0:51:41.120 --> 0:51:43.520 or if it was injured and if it died. They're 0:51:43.560 --> 0:51:45.960 just not sure. But I hope that sharks out there 0:51:46.080 --> 0:51:53.200 right now, uh, longing for seal flush, trying to eat right. So, 0:51:53.200 --> 0:51:55.640 so when a shark leaps out of the water, this 0:51:55.719 --> 0:51:59.440 is known as breaching. And to use specific terminology that 0:51:59.560 --> 0:52:02.000 I of from one study that I read, when a 0:52:02.080 --> 0:52:05.560 shark leaps vertically or near vertically out of the water, 0:52:05.640 --> 0:52:08.480 so it's coming up from below vertically into the air 0:52:08.520 --> 0:52:11.040 with a head up position, this is known as a 0:52:11.160 --> 0:52:14.879 polarist breach. Oh, I love that. That's so good. That's 0:52:14.880 --> 0:52:17.920 a good band name. Uh So, why do shark's breach? 0:52:18.080 --> 0:52:20.480 Why why do they come up out of the water like? Well, 0:52:20.680 --> 0:52:24.400 based on a lot of my research that concerns uh 0:52:24.560 --> 0:52:27.400 like nineteen eighties Italian shark films that came out in 0:52:27.400 --> 0:52:29.200 the wake of Jaws, they do it to make a 0:52:29.280 --> 0:52:32.440 boat explode, right, Yeah, to smash a boat. And no, 0:52:32.600 --> 0:52:34.400 that is not why they do it. They they're There 0:52:34.400 --> 0:52:36.560 are two main kinds of breaching. There may be other 0:52:36.719 --> 0:52:39.040 minor behavior, but the two main kinds that you'll read 0:52:39.080 --> 0:52:42.279 about most often are predatory breaching and what's known as 0:52:42.480 --> 0:52:46.680 natural breaching. So predatory breaching, it's all there in the name. 0:52:46.760 --> 0:52:50.000 The shark is in the pursuit of prey. There's a seal, 0:52:50.280 --> 0:52:54.440 you know, pinniped there, that's a nice fatty delicious energy 0:52:54.560 --> 0:52:57.600 rich meal swimming along near the surface of the water. 0:52:58.239 --> 0:53:01.920 And in these breaches, the shark moves rapidly up from below, 0:53:02.640 --> 0:53:05.120 bites as it shoots up into the air and then 0:53:05.160 --> 0:53:07.400 slams back down into the water. And a lot of 0:53:07.440 --> 0:53:10.400 cases there it'll shoot up from below, hit the seal, 0:53:10.560 --> 0:53:13.319 bite it, and then release it and then wait for 0:53:13.400 --> 0:53:15.560 the seal to bleed out and die and come back 0:53:15.560 --> 0:53:17.799 and finish it. This was Yeah. I was reading a 0:53:17.840 --> 0:53:21.200 paper about this the other day in preparation for this episode, 0:53:21.200 --> 0:53:23.239 and I found that interesting because I really had not 0:53:23.520 --> 0:53:28.000 researched actual shark um predatory behavior much and the idea 0:53:28.080 --> 0:53:30.960 that they wound and then allow the prey to bleed 0:53:31.440 --> 0:53:35.440 and then come back for it is interesting because because 0:53:35.480 --> 0:53:38.080 you know, nobody wants to get slapped by a seal, 0:53:38.680 --> 0:53:41.319 including a great white shark. You know, the shark is 0:53:41.640 --> 0:53:44.239 has to be cautious, like a prey can injure it 0:53:44.440 --> 0:53:46.840 if it's fighting around with it while the prey is 0:53:46.840 --> 0:53:49.239 still strong, so it wants to avoid that. In fact, 0:53:49.360 --> 0:53:51.799 one of the papers I read about this by an 0:53:51.800 --> 0:53:55.000 author named r Aiden Martin, who has written on on 0:53:55.120 --> 0:53:58.480 great white breaching. A good bit they actually put together 0:53:58.520 --> 0:54:02.080 a shark hunting decision entree. So it has it's like 0:54:02.080 --> 0:54:05.480 a flow chart where you know what, depending on what happens, 0:54:05.480 --> 0:54:08.839 do you move to this next thing or this next thing? Uh? 0:54:08.880 --> 0:54:12.160 And so it includes like the initial attack and then 0:54:12.239 --> 0:54:16.640 do you catch or do you wait and pursue? Do 0:54:16.680 --> 0:54:19.759 you quote process? I love that at some point the 0:54:19.760 --> 0:54:23.759 shark begins to process the seal um And we don't 0:54:23.760 --> 0:54:26.480 mean thinking about the seal here either. No, this is 0:54:26.520 --> 0:54:29.359 sort of working on it right right, butchering with its 0:54:29.400 --> 0:54:32.400 mouth basically. So so why does it do this? What? 0:54:32.520 --> 0:54:34.880 Why is the great white shark attacking the seal in 0:54:34.920 --> 0:54:36.840 this way? Why didn't just swim up from behind and 0:54:36.960 --> 0:54:41.320 bite it? Uh? Well, think think about how this plays 0:54:41.360 --> 0:54:43.960 out in practice, like what the conditions are for the 0:54:44.000 --> 0:54:47.239 predator and for the prey. Looking up from the deep 0:54:47.280 --> 0:54:50.719 water below. The shark has more ability to see a 0:54:50.760 --> 0:54:54.320 seal near the surface than the seal does the shark, 0:54:54.800 --> 0:54:57.719 so the seal is illuminated by the sky and these 0:54:57.760 --> 0:55:01.040 attacks take place more often in low like conditions, when 0:55:01.120 --> 0:55:04.919 there's less penetration of water of the water column by 0:55:04.960 --> 0:55:06.719 the light in the sky, like if the sun's at 0:55:06.760 --> 0:55:10.359 an angle. So you're a shark, you know several you know, 0:55:10.719 --> 0:55:13.440 meters down below the water, and you're looking up. You 0:55:13.480 --> 0:55:15.640 can see your prey, but it's less likely to see you, 0:55:15.800 --> 0:55:18.960 especially because of your your dorsal coloring, the dark coloring 0:55:19.000 --> 0:55:21.719 on the top of you. And so why is this 0:55:21.760 --> 0:55:25.160 element of surprise so crucial? Well, when you look at 0:55:25.280 --> 0:55:29.800 the body composition of a white shark versus a seal 0:55:30.360 --> 0:55:33.600 um According to one study I read, between ninety four 0:55:33.640 --> 0:55:37.840 and nine percent of a white sharks muscle is composed 0:55:37.840 --> 0:55:40.279 of what's known as white muscle. And this is this 0:55:40.320 --> 0:55:43.880 is sprinting muscle. It's capable of rapid contraction, but it 0:55:43.920 --> 0:55:46.880 has very low stamina, and a pinnip head like a seal, 0:55:46.920 --> 0:55:49.320 on the other hand, can go the distance. It's capable 0:55:49.320 --> 0:55:53.040 of sustaining long term evasive tactics. So the longer the 0:55:53.080 --> 0:55:56.279 attack goes on, the better that the less chance a 0:55:56.320 --> 0:55:59.200 shark has of catching the seal and getting it um. 0:55:59.400 --> 0:56:03.040 So the sharks are better at sprinting the marathon, seals 0:56:03.080 --> 0:56:06.960 can can keep evading, so a sudden surprise attack greatly 0:56:07.080 --> 0:56:09.680 increases the sharks chance of success. And this is why 0:56:10.000 --> 0:56:13.839 this rocketing up from below which leads to breaching UH 0:56:13.960 --> 0:56:17.680 is so common. Well, that makes perfect sense from the 0:56:18.040 --> 0:56:20.640 from a hunting standpoint, and according to a paper on 0:56:20.719 --> 0:56:23.560 the on the physics of this process, so the shark 0:56:24.000 --> 0:56:28.279 usually starts UH down deep in the water, a place 0:56:28.320 --> 0:56:31.200 where the bottom depth is between twenty six and thirty 0:56:31.239 --> 0:56:35.040 meters and UH in these cases, the entire attack, you know, 0:56:35.280 --> 0:56:38.680 leaping up from the bottom after they begin their strikes 0:56:38.719 --> 0:56:41.239 to UH to the seal is about two to two 0:56:41.280 --> 0:56:43.160 and a half seconds, so it just doesn't give the 0:56:43.160 --> 0:56:46.080 seal much time at all to react. And then, of course, 0:56:46.200 --> 0:56:48.160 at the speed it takes to hit the seal from 0:56:48.239 --> 0:56:52.000 below that fast, the sharks still propelled upwards and it's 0:56:52.120 --> 0:56:55.120 going out of the water. Um. And in these cases 0:56:55.160 --> 0:56:59.439 the shark attacks are successful about forty percent of the time, 0:57:00.000 --> 0:57:03.560 which is not a bad hunting success, right. But then 0:57:03.600 --> 0:57:06.239 there's this other kind of breaching image that's what that's 0:57:06.239 --> 0:57:09.000 the predatory breaching, jumping out of the water to kill. 0:57:09.560 --> 0:57:12.160 There's also what's known as natural breaching, when the shark 0:57:12.320 --> 0:57:17.800 breaches for no obvious reason, there's no predatory attack or anything, um, 0:57:17.800 --> 0:57:20.000 no bait on the surface that it's being coaxed to 0:57:20.040 --> 0:57:24.680 the surface with right, So why what what's going on here? Well, 0:57:24.880 --> 0:57:29.640 according to one theory, sharks have these well developed mechano 0:57:29.760 --> 0:57:32.920 receptors and chemo receptors and electro receptors. They have all 0:57:33.200 --> 0:57:37.440 you know, receptive sensing organs that we don't have at 0:57:37.440 --> 0:57:41.880 that kind of level. So it's been hypothesized that tail slap, 0:57:42.040 --> 0:57:45.240 so that's one type of slapping behavior, and then breaching, 0:57:45.320 --> 0:57:49.640 jumping out of the water, and splashing down are communicative. 0:57:49.760 --> 0:57:53.760 They they're allowing sharks to communicate between one another through 0:57:53.800 --> 0:57:58.240 agonistic behaviors. That's not you know, fighting displays. I'm tough, 0:57:58.680 --> 0:58:01.160 this is my food. You better get away because I 0:58:01.200 --> 0:58:04.320 could fight you for it. And it's true that lots 0:58:04.320 --> 0:58:07.560 of fishes do use sound as a communication channel, and 0:58:07.640 --> 0:58:12.280 so it's hypothesized that these behaviors like tail slapping and breaching, 0:58:12.360 --> 0:58:15.160 jumping out of the water and splashing down could exploit 0:58:15.160 --> 0:58:19.280 this kind of mechano reception, This this sound sensitive ability 0:58:19.320 --> 0:58:22.280 of fish to communicate between the sharks. And when you 0:58:22.320 --> 0:58:25.439 think about it, a shark jumping out of the water 0:58:25.520 --> 0:58:29.160 and splashing down is not necessarily a bad signifier of fitness. 0:58:29.240 --> 0:58:33.440 That's like the bigger you are, and the stronger you are, 0:58:33.600 --> 0:58:37.160 the harder of a splashdown you can make. It's certainly, 0:58:37.200 --> 0:58:38.640 I mean, it makes a statement to us and we're 0:58:38.680 --> 0:58:40.960 not even sharks. Yeah. And one reason to think this 0:58:41.000 --> 0:58:44.040 is a good explanation is that this natural breaching often 0:58:44.080 --> 0:58:47.480 seems to happen with sharks in the presence of other sharks, 0:58:47.520 --> 0:58:51.680 not just hanging out by themselves. Now, this is interesting. 0:58:51.680 --> 0:58:54.760 We're talking about this breaching behavior that's taking place, uh 0:58:55.120 --> 0:58:58.840 specifically to predatory breaching behavior. It's taking place in the 0:58:58.880 --> 0:59:02.640 presence of the seal. You brought up an interesting um 0:59:03.040 --> 0:59:08.680 tidbit yesterday about the recent shark move movie The Shallows, 0:59:09.120 --> 0:59:11.960 in which the shark tries to eat Blake Lively about 0:59:12.360 --> 0:59:14.160 about what what does it mean when we see a 0:59:14.240 --> 0:59:19.120 movie shark breaching like this in seemingly tropical waters. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:59:19.160 --> 0:59:22.720 this was interesting. I believe I read this. Now this 0:59:22.760 --> 0:59:24.760 isn't in my notes. I'm just trying to recall from memory, 0:59:25.120 --> 0:59:27.480 but I recalled that I read this, I think on 0:59:27.600 --> 0:59:31.880 Smithsonian where they were reviewing the trailer of the film. 0:59:31.960 --> 0:59:34.400 But they spoke to a marine biologist who had some 0:59:34.480 --> 0:59:37.280 knowledge of shark behaviors and said Okay, look at how 0:59:37.320 --> 0:59:40.040 the shark's acting in the trailer for this movie. Is 0:59:40.080 --> 0:59:44.120 this basically accurate? Uh? And I recall what the the 0:59:44.160 --> 0:59:46.680 expert said was, well, it looks like this movie is 0:59:46.680 --> 0:59:49.800 supposed to take place in tropical waters, and yet you 0:59:49.840 --> 0:59:52.240 see the shark when it attacks this guy leaps out 0:59:52.240 --> 0:59:56.240 of the water. That's breaching behavior, which is not necessarily 0:59:56.280 --> 0:59:59.320 something you'd be likely to see in tropical waters because 0:59:59.600 --> 1:00:01.280 the place as you really see it are are like 1:00:01.400 --> 1:00:05.200 in South Africa, where they have these uh, these prey 1:00:05.280 --> 1:00:08.120 like seals that they have to attack in this manner 1:00:08.120 --> 1:00:11.200 in order to maximize their success rate at catching them. 1:00:11.360 --> 1:00:14.480 In tropical waters, sharks probably have access to fish that 1:00:14.520 --> 1:00:18.040 are much more slow moving and easier to catch, and 1:00:18.080 --> 1:00:21.480 they just they don't have to resort to these breaching 1:00:21.520 --> 1:00:25.960 behaviors in order to catch meals so that they The 1:00:26.240 --> 1:00:30.400 expert they talked to rated that as not quite so plausible. 1:00:30.960 --> 1:00:34.400 But from a cinematic standpoint, nothing is more terrifying than 1:00:34.400 --> 1:00:37.600 the shark coming out of its habitat into our habitat 1:00:37.680 --> 1:00:40.440 in order to especially to eat us. It's the inherent 1:00:40.480 --> 1:00:45.160 perversity of the land shark. It is all right, well, 1:00:45.200 --> 1:00:48.640 at this point, we really have only one sort of 1:00:48.800 --> 1:00:52.240 leaping jumping fish to consider, right, and that is of 1:00:52.280 --> 1:00:56.880 course the so called flying fish, right, because the distinction 1:00:56.920 --> 1:01:00.600 between jumping and flying may seem very clear, you right, 1:01:00.720 --> 1:01:04.360 you know, Uh, kangaroos jump and birds fly, and and 1:01:05.080 --> 1:01:07.920 these are not all that similar behaviors, but the dividing 1:01:07.960 --> 1:01:13.200 line between them, I don't know, is it really just time? Well, yeah, 1:01:13.240 --> 1:01:18.240 you can certainly bog yourself down in in um definitions 1:01:18.280 --> 1:01:22.800 of flight. Uh. To be clear with with the flying fish, 1:01:22.840 --> 1:01:26.640 we are talking about a gliding sometimes kind of a hydroplaning, 1:01:26.640 --> 1:01:29.040 where they're just where the tail is still in contact 1:01:29.040 --> 1:01:33.000 with the water. Um. So it's not powered flight, it's 1:01:33.040 --> 1:01:36.240 not true flight. So we're not talking about piranha to 1:01:36.400 --> 1:01:39.040 the spawning here right right, and then there's certainly no 1:01:39.120 --> 1:01:44.080 feathers involved. But it's interesting to put this in, you know, 1:01:44.160 --> 1:01:46.200 to sort of top off this discussion of all these 1:01:46.240 --> 1:01:50.280 weeping and jumping behaviors, because gliding fish might seem like 1:01:50.440 --> 1:01:54.360 the the evolutionary pinnacle of jumping fish. Right. But but 1:01:54.440 --> 1:01:56.480 the interesting thing here is that there's nothing new at all. 1:01:56.840 --> 1:02:00.280 In two thousand twelve, paleontologists found a near comple eleat 1:02:00.440 --> 1:02:05.680 skeleton from the Driassic period that's two to two forty 1:02:05.680 --> 1:02:10.440 two million years ago, um and and near complete skeleton 1:02:10.880 --> 1:02:14.000 boasted all the key attributes of the modern flying fish, 1:02:14.240 --> 1:02:19.400 well developed pectorial fin and a forked, asymmetrical tail. And 1:02:19.440 --> 1:02:22.720 even this form seemed to have evolved independently from the 1:02:22.800 --> 1:02:27.000 sixty four known species of flying fish we find today 1:02:27.040 --> 1:02:29.600 in all the world's ocean independence. So it's not like 1:02:29.640 --> 1:02:32.439 an ancestor of the like a cousin of them that's 1:02:32.480 --> 1:02:35.760 now not here right, it developed this gliding technique on 1:02:35.800 --> 1:02:41.880 its own. Um. So it's interesting just to to realize 1:02:41.920 --> 1:02:45.240 that that gliding fish have evolved in the past separately. 1:02:45.320 --> 1:02:48.160 They've died, I had died out and uh, and we 1:02:48.240 --> 1:02:51.160 have a fairly successful model of it today in the 1:02:51.240 --> 1:02:54.400 in these sixty four known species of flying fish and 1:02:54.560 --> 1:02:57.760 um and again, they don't necessarily fly as much as 1:02:57.800 --> 1:03:01.280 they glide, but they can they can really glide. So 1:03:01.320 --> 1:03:03.640 then what what would the difference be between a fish 1:03:03.680 --> 1:03:08.000 that glides and a fish that actually quote flies. Well, again, 1:03:08.000 --> 1:03:10.880 this is an area where where individuals can get into 1:03:11.640 --> 1:03:15.480 discussions and disagreements over what defines flight, but essentially it's 1:03:15.480 --> 1:03:18.960 a difference between powered flight and gliding, all right, So 1:03:19.080 --> 1:03:22.480 is it is the creature flapping its wings in order 1:03:22.520 --> 1:03:25.600 to sustain itself in the air or is it merely 1:03:25.760 --> 1:03:29.520 sort of falling with grace? Right? Uh, hang glider versus 1:03:29.520 --> 1:03:33.680 an airplane exactly, because we see plenty of gliding creatures 1:03:33.960 --> 1:03:36.760 and it generally means in order to glide, you need 1:03:36.840 --> 1:03:39.560 to either fall from something high, such as a tree, 1:03:39.600 --> 1:03:41.920 which is why we see so many um, you know, 1:03:42.000 --> 1:03:44.760 tree based gliders of boreal gliders, or it needs to 1:03:44.800 --> 1:03:47.080 be able to jump up high enough to glide a 1:03:47.120 --> 1:03:49.760 little bit. And that's what we see with gliding or 1:03:49.800 --> 1:03:53.000 flying fish. Um and they can they can really glide. 1:03:53.000 --> 1:03:58.920 They can glide and or hydroplane distances of hundred feet 1:03:59.000 --> 1:04:02.280 or four hundred meters thirty seconds with maximum flight speeds 1:04:02.280 --> 1:04:04.800 of up to forty five miles per hour or seventy 1:04:04.840 --> 1:04:08.560 two kilometers per hour, which is pretty impressive. I feel 1:04:08.600 --> 1:04:11.800 like we've all seen like splendid videos of this taking place. 1:04:11.840 --> 1:04:14.920 It's it's pretty impressive. So since these fish are small, 1:04:15.000 --> 1:04:19.000 I imagine they're not breaching to uh, to inflict predatory 1:04:19.080 --> 1:04:21.400 damage on a seal or something like no no, no, 1:04:21.600 --> 1:04:25.400 these are These are generally plankton eaters, and pretty much 1:04:25.400 --> 1:04:28.920 everybody agrees that they jump and glide to escape. There 1:04:28.920 --> 1:04:32.680 are many many enemies in the sea. Yeah, yet another 1:04:32.720 --> 1:04:35.840 evasive maneuver right now. There have been some that are 1:04:35.920 --> 1:04:39.120 proposed that this has to do with energy conservation, like 1:04:39.200 --> 1:04:42.600 the running or porpoising that is observed in marine mammals 1:04:42.600 --> 1:04:46.080 such as penguins or dolphins, but it really doesn't pan 1:04:46.120 --> 1:04:49.000 out when you crunch all the factors, including the oxygen 1:04:49.080 --> 1:04:54.080 debt of takeoff, and biologist John Davenport did just this 1:04:54.200 --> 1:04:57.360 sort of crunching in his paper How and Why Do 1:04:57.480 --> 1:05:00.959 Flying Fish Fly? Which is a certain only a good 1:05:01.000 --> 1:05:02.840 in depth read if you really want to get into 1:05:02.840 --> 1:05:08.400 the the economics and physics of this. Another theory sees 1:05:08.480 --> 1:05:10.440 all of this is a means to move from a 1:05:10.560 --> 1:05:14.439 food or plankton poor area to a food rich area, 1:05:14.720 --> 1:05:18.400 thus making the energy expenditure worth it, essentially kind of 1:05:18.440 --> 1:05:21.120 like rate and teleporting during a fight to get behind 1:05:21.200 --> 1:05:23.920 an opponent. You're not in a good position for your food, 1:05:24.720 --> 1:05:28.520 teleport to the to the to the positive position via flight, 1:05:28.640 --> 1:05:30.480 but there's not a lot of evidence to back that up. 1:05:30.520 --> 1:05:33.280 So why why would the flying or gliding in that 1:05:33.320 --> 1:05:36.880 case be better than just swimming to the food rich area. 1:05:37.200 --> 1:05:38.480 I just have to go back to the rate and 1:05:38.560 --> 1:05:41.600 analogy there. It's just the the it's in the realm 1:05:41.640 --> 1:05:45.520 of water. It is more like an instant appearance as 1:05:45.560 --> 1:05:50.160 opposed to a journey too. But again, so you can 1:05:50.160 --> 1:05:52.800 pretty much don't worry too much about that theory because 1:05:52.800 --> 1:05:55.720 pretty much everybody is still in agreeance. This is about 1:05:55.840 --> 1:05:59.760 escaping predators. Now. In escaping those predators, flying fish that 1:06:00.080 --> 1:06:03.000 or gliding fish, they don't flap their wings to gain 1:06:03.080 --> 1:06:07.000 lift um. They propel through the air water interface. I 1:06:07.080 --> 1:06:11.200 like that terminology at a shallow angle, unfurl their large 1:06:11.360 --> 1:06:14.200 lateral fins, and then rapidly beat their tail in the 1:06:14.240 --> 1:06:17.680 water prior to actual lift off. And it's interesting too 1:06:17.760 --> 1:06:19.960 that they have to be a certain size before they 1:06:19.960 --> 1:06:22.919 can actually pull this off. The smaller flying fish, before 1:06:22.960 --> 1:06:28.240 they've attained appropriate size, they can't actually uh pull this off. 1:06:28.800 --> 1:06:32.240 They're limited to simple leaps with their fins held against 1:06:32.320 --> 1:06:36.680 the body by surface tension. Huh yeah, okay, well so 1:06:37.000 --> 1:06:39.600 flying fish, you might say, in this case is kind 1:06:39.600 --> 1:06:43.120 of a misnomer. Then yes, they're they're gliding fish. That 1:06:43.240 --> 1:06:47.200 we have jumping fish, we have longer jumping fish, we 1:06:47.280 --> 1:06:51.480 have gliding fish. But I wonder why no fish with 1:06:51.600 --> 1:06:56.480 the ability to maintain sustained flight? Because if you imagine 1:06:56.520 --> 1:07:00.000 the the evolution of flight and its many forms, uh, 1:07:00.280 --> 1:07:06.080 it's commonly hypothesized that flight organs began with gliding organs. 1:07:06.160 --> 1:07:11.960 You know, organisms had had maybe movements or gliding organs 1:07:12.000 --> 1:07:14.520 that would help them coast from one tree to another 1:07:14.920 --> 1:07:17.520 or help them escape a predator faster. And overtime these 1:07:17.600 --> 1:07:21.200 organs developed until they were able to create powered sustained 1:07:21.200 --> 1:07:24.960 flight like birds. So why haven't fish gone there? Why 1:07:24.960 --> 1:07:27.560 are there no fish birds? I know you can't help 1:07:27.600 --> 1:07:30.280 but think about this, especially when you look at you 1:07:30.480 --> 1:07:33.800 jumping and then gliding, Why not flying? Why why have 1:07:33.880 --> 1:07:36.800 they not taken that next step? And then indeed is 1:07:36.840 --> 1:07:40.960 that step even possible? Right? Because as as you pointed out, 1:07:41.000 --> 1:07:43.040 so many of these examples of flight that we have 1:07:43.720 --> 1:07:45.920 um and certainly there are not that many. You can 1:07:45.960 --> 1:07:48.480 ultimately kind of look at at flight as a is 1:07:48.520 --> 1:07:51.560 a rare adaptation, even though it has been tremendously successful 1:07:52.080 --> 1:07:55.760 for the organisms that have achieved it. Because as vertebrates 1:07:55.800 --> 1:07:58.600 go we've we've only seen three takes on flight. We've 1:07:58.600 --> 1:08:03.160 seen UH a osaurin flight, We've seen a d in flight, 1:08:03.440 --> 1:08:06.720 and we've seen you know, bat flight, and UH and fish. 1:08:06.840 --> 1:08:08.720 So far as we know, unless there's some sort of 1:08:08.720 --> 1:08:11.680 fossil out there that we've yet to uncover, they've never 1:08:11.760 --> 1:08:15.040 crossed the threshold UH and UH and and and all. 1:08:15.120 --> 1:08:17.840 When you take in all biology, you have a single 1:08:17.960 --> 1:08:22.600 extinct lineage and three extant clades birds, bats and the 1:08:23.160 --> 1:08:25.639 and and UH and also insects. But even in these 1:08:25.640 --> 1:08:30.639 three extant examples of of vertebrate flight, they are examples 1:08:30.680 --> 1:08:34.759 of convergent evolution. Not that, like the pterosaurs, the birds 1:08:34.800 --> 1:08:37.799 and the bats didn't evolve from each other. They all 1:08:38.120 --> 1:08:41.960 independently achieved the mechanisms of flight. That's right. They exploit 1:08:42.040 --> 1:08:44.600 the same physical properties, but they're all different solutions to 1:08:44.680 --> 1:08:47.559 the same problem. I was looking at this book by 1:08:47.720 --> 1:08:52.679 David E. Alexander and Stephen Vogel titled Nature's Flyers, Birds, Insects, 1:08:52.680 --> 1:08:55.200 and the Biomechanics of Flight, and they put it into 1:08:55.240 --> 1:08:59.800 context like this quote. Although such convergent features may make 1:09:00.080 --> 1:09:03.960 animals appear quite similar, the adaptations are only superficially similar 1:09:04.080 --> 1:09:07.839 and have fundamental differences. Fish or cold blooded, scaly animals 1:09:07.840 --> 1:09:11.000 with gills, but pro porpoises are warm blooded, smooth skinned 1:09:11.040 --> 1:09:13.479 breathers of air. The point being that these are both 1:09:13.479 --> 1:09:16.360 not flight based. But these are both sea creatures with 1:09:16.400 --> 1:09:18.920 similar forms at first glance, but there of course very 1:09:18.920 --> 1:09:23.879 different organisms that it continues. Hummingbirds and bumblebees have almost 1:09:23.880 --> 1:09:27.599 identical wing beat patterns, but hummingbird wings are made of bone, muscle, 1:09:27.640 --> 1:09:31.320 and feathers. Bee wings are made of of pleated membranes 1:09:31.360 --> 1:09:34.680 supported by stiff, hollow veins. And they point out to 1:09:34.800 --> 1:09:38.400 that technological evolution has produced several areas of convergence between 1:09:38.439 --> 1:09:41.840 flying animals and flying machines. Quote the convergences were not 1:09:41.960 --> 1:09:46.600 intentional copies of mechanisms used by animals, but technological solutions 1:09:46.600 --> 1:09:49.880 to common challenges faced by all flyers. So this would 1:09:49.920 --> 1:09:53.560 seem to indicate that there's no inherent reason you couldn't 1:09:53.600 --> 1:09:58.400 expect fish to evolve mechanisms like a bird's wings or 1:09:58.479 --> 1:10:03.120 like an insect swings. Uh, they would just be you know, fishier. Basically, 1:10:03.560 --> 1:10:07.880 they would be evolved from the equipment available to fish. Anatomy. Well, 1:10:08.080 --> 1:10:10.800 the one place that my mind immediately mean went was 1:10:10.800 --> 1:10:12.960 all right, So almost it seems like all these other 1:10:13.000 --> 1:10:17.519 examples are our land creatures that that take to gliding. 1:10:17.600 --> 1:10:21.600 So maybe dwelling on the land is an essential prerequisite 1:10:22.040 --> 1:10:26.679 too to the sort of gliding that evolves into flight. Yeah, 1:10:26.720 --> 1:10:29.280 that could certainly like do you need or runway in 1:10:29.400 --> 1:10:33.760 order to evolve flight? A solid runway or or a 1:10:33.840 --> 1:10:36.200 high place to jump off of? Can you just not 1:10:36.320 --> 1:10:42.240 really ever evolutionarily justify the the evolution of propelled flight 1:10:42.320 --> 1:10:46.200 mechanisms if you always have to start from underwater, right, 1:10:46.360 --> 1:10:49.559 And and maybe that does hold true invertebrates. But then, 1:10:49.600 --> 1:10:54.000 according to biologists Jim Martin, the possible exception is with insects. 1:10:54.040 --> 1:10:57.880 Flapping gills could have evolved into flight capable wings as 1:10:57.920 --> 1:11:01.519 an aquatic in an aquatic ironment, according to Martin, so 1:11:02.880 --> 1:11:06.280 insects may have an out there. But maybe this prerequisite 1:11:06.280 --> 1:11:10.200 holds true with vertebrates. But the thing is, when you 1:11:10.240 --> 1:11:12.800 start asking this question, you also have to take it 1:11:12.840 --> 1:11:16.559 outside of fish too, because we could also say asked 1:11:16.560 --> 1:11:20.680 the same thing about other gliding organisms, gliding snakes, lizards, 1:11:21.040 --> 1:11:26.240 the gliding squid, various gliding arboreal mammals, including lemurs. Why 1:11:26.240 --> 1:11:30.439 do they know flying lemurs because certainly they're they're in 1:11:30.439 --> 1:11:32.880 the position where they're they're leaping out of trees, they're 1:11:32.880 --> 1:11:35.880 gliding a little whine. Is that not developed into flight? 1:11:36.080 --> 1:11:40.080 I guess the simplest explanation to me would would just 1:11:40.120 --> 1:11:41.920 be a guess, But it would be that there's just 1:11:41.960 --> 1:11:45.080 not enough incentive for it, Like maybe there's just no 1:11:45.280 --> 1:11:49.800 clear advantage survival or reproduction advantage to fish remaining in 1:11:49.840 --> 1:11:52.840 the air for longer than it takes to glidees a 1:11:52.880 --> 1:11:55.160 short distance. Because you know, when you think about it, 1:11:55.200 --> 1:11:58.200 what really happens in the air. I mean, birds use 1:11:58.360 --> 1:12:02.400 the air to traverse between in different locations of feeding 1:12:02.439 --> 1:12:05.599 and breeding and stuff like that. I suppose fish could 1:12:05.600 --> 1:12:07.120 do the same thing, But I don't know would they 1:12:07.160 --> 1:12:11.800 be more would they be more open to bird predation 1:12:11.880 --> 1:12:13.599 if they were to fly around in the air all 1:12:13.640 --> 1:12:17.519 the time? With I mean, it could just be that 1:12:17.560 --> 1:12:22.479 there's not enough reason for them to have this trade. Yeah, 1:12:22.520 --> 1:12:25.000 because yeah, because when you do one thing to say, 1:12:25.000 --> 1:12:26.880 all right, why why on the flying fish just become 1:12:26.880 --> 1:12:29.719 a true flying organism, But you also have to provide 1:12:29.760 --> 1:12:32.400 the reason for it, like how is that going to work? 1:12:32.479 --> 1:12:36.040 Is it is it? Is it really of benefit that's 1:12:36.040 --> 1:12:39.760 going to play out in evolution? And uh, so far 1:12:39.920 --> 1:12:43.360 the answer seems to be no. Now I do have 1:12:43.400 --> 1:12:46.720 to mention that this this larger question of why do 1:12:46.920 --> 1:12:50.080 some lineages evolve into the sky and there's not? It 1:12:50.120 --> 1:12:52.760 remains something of a mystery, and scientists that even look 1:12:52.840 --> 1:12:56.200 to underlying molecular mechanisms and this whole there's a whole 1:12:56.200 --> 1:13:00.880 study of biological uh periodicity that gets into this. It 1:13:00.920 --> 1:13:03.920 gets a really deep and complex bit and and uh 1:13:03.960 --> 1:13:07.600 and has a lot of a lot of parallels in 1:13:07.600 --> 1:13:13.200 in molecular concerns. So it's uh so, so it ends 1:13:13.240 --> 1:13:16.200 up being a deeper question than just why don't fish 1:13:16.400 --> 1:13:21.800 actually fly? But why does do do any numbers? Yeah, 1:13:21.800 --> 1:13:24.200 one more thing I probably should say. It's may have 1:13:24.240 --> 1:13:26.679 been too obvious for us to mention. But of course 1:13:26.720 --> 1:13:31.040 there is the impediment of breathing. Oh yes, but certainly 1:13:31.120 --> 1:13:34.680 we have land again right to the the mud skippers 1:13:34.720 --> 1:13:38.560 and the walking catfish, this and earlier forms of lungfish. 1:13:38.600 --> 1:13:41.960 So that alone doesn't seem like it would be um, 1:13:42.400 --> 1:13:45.160 you know, an eliminating factor, but it would certainly still 1:13:45.200 --> 1:13:50.640 be a concern because they are venturing outside of their realm. Yeah, 1:13:50.960 --> 1:13:53.960 all right, so there you have it. Um. Now, we 1:13:54.040 --> 1:13:57.320 only covered some of the jumping fish out there in 1:13:57.360 --> 1:14:00.680 the world, so we may have missed some examples that 1:14:00.720 --> 1:14:03.160 you're particularly fond of, or some just examples you've seen 1:14:03.200 --> 1:14:05.519 in real life and have some stories related to. Yeah, 1:14:05.520 --> 1:14:07.320 and one thing I do think we should make clear 1:14:07.479 --> 1:14:09.720 is that Robert, you and I were not trying to 1:14:09.720 --> 1:14:12.679 be alarmists about fish jumping. We we have covered several 1:14:12.720 --> 1:14:16.000 stories of fish jumping into boats, fish jumping into people, 1:14:16.560 --> 1:14:19.320 and injuries that have been sustained on those accounts. But 1:14:19.400 --> 1:14:23.280 I think these events are exceedingly rare overall, So you 1:14:23.320 --> 1:14:25.800 really don't need to be like super worried about getting 1:14:25.840 --> 1:14:29.040 killed by jumping fish, right, But certainly if there's a 1:14:29.080 --> 1:14:32.280 sign saying telling you not to drive too fast on 1:14:32.320 --> 1:14:35.920 the water because there are leaping sturgeon, I would acknowledge 1:14:35.960 --> 1:14:39.160 that sign and remember that, yes, individuals have been injured 1:14:39.240 --> 1:14:42.559 or killed, so be cautious on or the sturgeon are 1:14:42.640 --> 1:14:46.439 under the sturgeon. Indeed. All right, So hey, if you 1:14:46.439 --> 1:14:49.719 want to check out more episodes of stuff to blow 1:14:49.720 --> 1:14:51.320 your mind, head on over to stuff to blow your 1:14:51.320 --> 1:14:53.160 mind dot com. That's the mothership. 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