Due to this month’s rainstorms, strong winds and big surf, I’ve been walking next to the ocean instead of getting into it. But I’ve not been deprived of marine animals. The ocean delivers them at my feet.

Last week on the beach I found the tiniest flyingfish I’ve ever seen, a 1-inch-long beauty that had its last gasp in my hand. Flyingfish that small are sometimes called “smurfs.”

In 1758, Carolus Linnaeus gave a flyingfish its first scientific name, Exocoetus volitans. “Exocoetus” is from Greek meaning “sleep outside,” a surprisingly apt name. At the time, Mediterranean sailors thought flyingfish, like some seabirds, came ashore at night to sleep on land.

Not so, but I can see why they thought that. The 60-some flyingfish species in the world’s warm (68 degrees and above) oceans are true fish that can live only briefly out of the water. But their in-air outings can be spectacular. The longest recorded flyingfish flight lasted 45 seconds, filmed alongside a ferry in Japan.

Although most species of flyingfish are only about a foot long, the largest can grow to 20 inches and weigh up to 1.5 pounds.

In the water, flyingfish hold their winglike fins close to the body. About seven species have only two wings (modified pectoral fins), and the rest have four (modified pelvic fins). Unlike most birds, flyingfish wings are always shorter than the body.

Flyingfish wings can’t flap, but muscles pull the fins forward and lock them open for flight.

The lower jawbones of all flyingfish are harder than those of other fish, an adaptation that keeps the mouth from breaking when hitting the water at 30 to 40 mph.

A flyingfish reaches such remarkable speeds by bending its body nearly 90 degrees sideways and then snapping straight as it leaps from the water.

A flyingfish’s tail helps the fish leave the water. The tail’s longer lower lobe can beat an astonishing 50 times per second for boosts. When the fish starts to fall, it does so tail-first, the tail sculling the water for that extra burst. Single glides range from 50 to 300 feet, but by tail-sculling, the fish can stay above water a quarter-mile or so.

Hawaiians named flyingfish malolo. Calling someone a malolo meant he or she was a “fickle person who leaps from mate to mate.”

The flyingfish is the national animal of the Caribbean island Barbados and the island’s national dish. In Japan flyingfish eggs, called tobiko, are common in sushi.

Leaping from the water is often successful for escaping predators below, but the tactic has risks above, such as hunting seabirds and passing boats. And sometimes a youngster’s jump from the sea becomes a crash on the beach.

This one, however, landed at the right pair of feet. The lovely little smurf now has its obituary in the newspaper.

To reach Susan Scott, go to susanscott.net and click on “Contact” at the top of her home page.