Seals and sea lions often hunt fish in waters too dark or turbid to rely on eyesight. Instead, they follow their whiskers, using the turbulence generated by a fish’s wake. Keep reading
Tag: fish
Swimming Intermittently
Many fish do not swim continuously; instead, they use an intermittent motion, swimming in a sudden burst and then coasting. This intermittent swimming is tough to simulate, due to its Keep reading
Simulating Schools
In nature, fish school for many reasons: protection from predators, increased sensing, and hydrodynamic advantages. To capture this complex behavior, researchers are building their own digital fish, governed by known Keep reading
Under the Sea
Deep below the ocean surface, light is in short supply. But dive photographer Steven Kovacs specializes in capturing the ethereal creatures that live in this darkness. Many of his subjects Keep reading
Swimming Together
Scientists have long pondered the possibilities of hydrodynamic benefits to the ways fish school. But most analyses of schooling have assumed a fixed spacing that’s far more orderly than what Keep reading
Schooling Relies on Vision
For fish, collective motions like schooling rely on a few mechanisms, including flow sensing and — as beautifully demonstrated in this experiment — vision. Researchers used an infrared camera to Keep reading
Fish Versus Bird
You’ve seen birds catch fish, but have you ever seen a fish that catches birds? In this video, giant trevally fish hunt fledgling terns — including those in flight! To Keep reading
Benefits of Schooling
Though fluid dynamicists have long theorized about the hydrodynamic benefits of fish swimming in schools, nailing down the actual physics has been quite difficult. Fish rarely swim exactly as an Keep reading
The Best of FYFD 2020
2020 was certainly a strange year, and I confess that I mostly want to congratulate all of us for making it through and then look forward to a better, happier, Keep reading
The Challenges of Being Small
For juvenile fish, feeding is a challenge. Their small size — often less than 5 mm in length — makes hydrodynamically capturing prey much harder because of viscosity’s relatively larger Keep reading