ABSTRACT
By definition, fishes are aquatic vertebrates. The phrase “like a fish out of water” implies a creature that is completely out of place, possibly stressed and confused. The great anthropologist and essayist Loren Eiseley described the terrestrial emergence of a primitive fish as “a monstrous penetration of a forbidden element” (Eiseley, 1946), an excursion filled with terror and aching for breath. Yet many species of beach-spawning fishes emerge from water and are amphibious to some degree. Most of these do so predictably, with deliberate behavior and little outward evidence of fear. Some are so amphibious that they spend up to 90 percent of their time out of water (Clayton & Vaughan, 1986; Sayer & Davenport, 1991; Brown et al., 1992).
