That’s one small jump for a fish, but a big leap for fish kind. Needlefish have been seen shooting out of the water before smashing into schools of unsuspecting prey in the waters near Heron Island and North Stradbroke Island in Queensland, Australia.

“This is, as far as we know, the first time anyone has described a fish jumping out of the water to attack submerged prey,” says Ryan Day of the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia.

Needlefish live and feed close to the surface in tropical and temperate coastal waters. They are noted for tail walking on the water’s surface, and leaping out at speeds of up to 65 kilometres an hour to escape predators such as dolphins. It’s not unheard of for these projectile fish to injure unfortunate humans in their path.


Now it seems they can employ their leaping aptitude to hunt smaller fish, which they usually stalk at a distance of about 1 to 2 metres. The initial approach is easy, but it’s the last metre or so that really counts.

Deadly dive-bomb

Day suspects the strategy allows them to extend their attack range four-fold by disappearing just before they strike. “Once it leaps out of the water, it is essentially invisible, pretty much until it crashes through the water,” he says.

When needlefish try to attack prey without jumping, their attack range is about 50 centimetres. With the leap, this extends to about 2 metres, making it tougher for the prey to escape, Day says.

Needlefish are not the only ones that can leap above the water’s surface. Their relatives from the Beloniformes family, such as flying fish and halfbeaks, do it too, but for them the manoeuvre is a way to evade predators rather than attack prey.

Stalking less aquatic prey, African tigerfish have been spotted leaping to grab flying birds.

Journal reference: Journal of Fish Biology, DOI: 10.1111/jfb.12799

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Image credit: Flip Nicklin/Minden Pictures