Last night, I took my dog on a walk. We were having a high old time, walking along 2nd Avenue when I noticed something odd. A sweaty, tan, balding man, wearing black soccer shorts and white running shoes, was jogging towards us – backwards. I watched him, thinking he was going to turn around and begin running towards us frontwards, but he didn’t. About every 10 feet, he’d glance over his shoulder. He just kept on trucking. Backwards. I watched him stupidly as he ran past. My dog was disinterested. (“Mmm…cat poop…”)
Anyway, that got me to thinking about fish. Can fish swim backwards? I’ve seen fish back away from a coral outcropping, but I’ve never really seen them swimming backwards. So I did some research. This is what I learned:
* The beluga whale can swim backwards.
* Most fish can not swim backwards.
* Some aquarium fish, however, like the ghost knife and the crosshatch triggerfish, are able to swim backwards.
* Some electric fish – and I think the ghost knife, above, is among them – are capable of swimming backwards. In order to eat, they must first swim past their prey, detect it, and then reverse in order to eat. Evolutionarily, therefore, it’s important that they have this ability.
* Due to the morphology of their fins, sharks can not only NOT swim backwards, they are incapable of stopping.
* Dolphins can “swim backwards” but this is a case of semantics, I believe, and not what you picture in your mind when you imagine “a dolphin swimming backwards.” Check out this photo to see what I mean.
Have you ever seen a fish swimming backwards?
1. I was diving in a current once that was so strong the fish were trying to swim forward but were moving backward. Does that count? ;) It was actually a lot of fun.
Posted at 11:04PM on Jul 14th 2005 by Nicholas