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Moment of Um

Why do fish jump out of the water?

Moment of Um

American Public Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.41.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2024

⏱️ 6 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Picture this: you’re enjoying a perfect day by your favorite lake. The sun is shining, the water is calm, and everything is peaceful … until SPLASH! A fish flies out of the water like a silver torpedo and flops back down into the lake. Why do fish do that, anyway? We asked aquatic biologist Keegan Lutek to help us find the answer.


Got a question that you’re POND-ering? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find an answer that really makes a splash!

Transcript

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0:00.0

From the brains behind brains on this is the moment of um. Moment ofum comes to you from APM Studios.

0:13.0

I'm Sigourney Beaver. Ugh. Another serene day by the lake. As a famous Beaver actor, it's important to take time away from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood. It took me years to learn this. Why, I

0:37.4

remember when I was just a fresh-faced young Beaver playing a New York City

0:42.4

musician whose apartment becomes a hub of

0:46.2

paranormal activity in ghost beavers.

0:50.7

By the time we finished filming I was exhausted I could barely gnaw on a piece of

0:57.2

wood let alone prepare myself from my next role I said to myself,

1:03.0

so Gorney, you must find a place of your own

1:07.0

where you can unwind.

1:12.0

The rest is history. I found this incredible lakeside paradise, the most beautiful

1:18.1

little corner of the world and... Oh, did you just hear that? It sounded like...

1:24.0

Well, great. The fish are hurling themselves out of the water again.

1:31.0

Have you ever seen this before? A fish suddenly flings itself up out of the water like a silver torpedo and lands with a giant splash.

1:40.0

It's quite disruptive to my rest and relaxation.

1:44.0

Why do they do that anyway?

1:47.0

My human fans, Paige and Max,

1:50.0

were wondering the same thing. So the short answer to why fish jump out of the water

1:58.0

is that there's either something in the water that they want to get away from,

2:02.0

so a predator or poor water quality, or there's

2:07.3

something outside of the water that they want to get to.

2:10.8

My name's Dr. Keegan Lutek and I'm an aquatic biologist. So for example some fish will jump out of the water to actually catch food or to lay eggs or to go and find other bodies of water.

2:23.0

Lots of fish will jump if, for example, there's not a lot of oxygen in the water

...

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