How the fastest fish hunts its prey
Published:26 Feb.2023 Source:ScienceDaily
Thanks to researchers at NSU's Guy Harvey Research Institute (GHRI) who designed a novel electronic tag package incorporating high-tech sensors and a video camera, we now have for the first time, a detailed view of exactly how these fish behave and hunt once they are on their own and out of view of the surface.
Most of the day they dive back and forth between the surface and the thermocline layer, where the water gets cold. The thermocline can concentrate prey that don't want to enter the cold water, so it looks like the sailfish might be using this to its advantage. This type of hunting by sailfish has been observed several times by wildlife photographers because it often occurs at the surface of the ocean, where it is easily accessible to human eyes.
While this new video footage provides a unique perspective on the daily lives of sailfish, researcher caution that most of isn't that exciting -- not exactly the kind of footage that makes it to Instagram or TikTok. Most of what you see in the videos is just a lot of blue water. But when you saw the sailfish start to swim really fast toward the surface, you would know something was up. These findings will change what you know about the daily lives of sailfish.