Smallwing Flyingfish, Oxyporhamphus micropterus
Smallwing Flyingfish, Oxyhamphus micropterus. Fish provided by the commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, August 2008. Length: 19 cm (7.5 inches). Photographs, of this species are exceedingly rare.
The Smallwing Flyingfish, Oxyporhamphus micropterus, is a member of the Halfbeak or Hemiramphidae Family, that is known in Mexico as volador alita. This fish is also known as the Bigwing Halfbeak. Productive discussions with Milton Love at the University of California, Santa Barbara indicate that it was moved from the Hemiramphidae Family in 1998 to the Exocoetidae Family (Flyingfish) and given its common name. In 2011 it was moved back to the Halfbeak family but its common name as a flyingfish was retained generating some confusion. Globally, there are two species in the genus Oxyporhamphus, both of which are found in Mexican waters, one in the Atlantic and this species from the Pacific Ocean.
The Smallwing Flyingfish has an elongated cylindrical body. They are dark blue-black dorsally and silvery ventrally. Their caudal, dorsal, and pectoral fins and the outer half of their pelvic fins are black. They have a short snout with a small blunt mouth and a slightly projecting lower jaw. The lower beak of juveniles extends into a short beak. Their anal fin has 14 to 16 rays; their caudal fin is strongly forked with the lower lobe being larger than the upper lobe; their dorsal fin has 13 to 15 rays; their pectoral fins are about one-third of the body length and reach the origin of the pelvic fins; and, their pelvic fins are short with their origin closer to the anal fin origin than to the pectoral fin origin. They have 28 to 34 gill rakers. They are covered with large smooth scales. Their lateral line is low on the body.
The Smallwing Flyingfish is an oceanic pelagic species that is normally found far out at sea on the surface to depths of 6 m (20 feet). They reach a maximum of 22.0 cm (8.7 inches) in length. They feed on small fish and plankton. In turn they are preyed upon by birds, dolphins, dorados, marlins, porpoises, squids, and tuna. Their pectoral fins are of modest length and allow them to leap and glide limited distances above the ocean surface. Reproduction is oviparous with the release of large sticky filaments that attach to floating or benthic weeds. The Smallwing Flyingfish is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Smallwing Flyingfish is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean with the exception that they are absent from Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur, northward along the central and northwest coast of Baja and from north of La Paz in the Sea of Cortez.
The Smallwing Flyingfish, due to its relatively short pectoral fins, is a straightforward identification. If confused it would be with the Sharpchin Flyingfish, Fodiator acutus (projecting snout; longer pectoral fins).
From a conservation perspective the Smallwing Flyingfish has not been formally evaluated. They are uncommon and seldom seen by humans and of limited value to most.