Marine life  /  Other fish  /  Atlantic flying gurnard
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Species entry

Atlantic flying gurnard

Dactylopterus volitans

Walks over sand on separate finger-like pectoral rays and spreads two huge blue-spotted fins when alarmed. The fins are a display, not a means of flight.

Size
To 50 cm
Depth
1–25 m
Habitat
Sand and rubble; Blue Heron Bridge
Active
Daylight
Range
Atlantic and Mediterranean
Rarity
Florida
3 stars of 5, a good week should turn one up
SP-01
atlantic flying gurnard · full body · habitat
4:3 · min 2400px

To about 50 cm, common at 38. Unmistakable: enormous fan-like pectoral fins with the front six rays separated off as a small lobe, an armoured blunt head, and blue-spotted pectoral membranes when the fins are spread. Nothing in the region resembles it.

It walks over the bottom on the free pectoral rays, using them to probe for food, and flares the wings when disturbed. The spread is a display, not flight, and the name is a misnomer.

One to a hundred metres on sand, mud and rock set in sand. It is not venomous — FishBase records neither a glandular groove nor a venom gland — which is worth saying because the armoured head suggests otherwise.

Where to find:

LocationRarity Best monthsDepthHabitat
Florida United States editorial estimate
3 stars of 5, a good week should turn one up
Year-round
1–25 m
Sand and rubble; Blue Heron Bridge
Bahamas Bahamas editorial estimate
4 stars of 5, two or three a season
Year-round
1–25 m
Sand
Cayman Islands Cayman Islands editorial estimate
5 stars of 5, a handful of records
Year-round
3–25 m
Sand

Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.

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