What is a skyfish?
A skyfish is a rod-shaped unidentified creature said to fly through the air too fast for the eye to catch. Because something like fins seemed to ripple along both sides of its body, it was called a “flying fish.” In English-speaking countries it is also called a “rod.”
A cryptid born from video footage
In the 1990s, it drew attention when someone advancing frame by frame through landscape video shot in the United States found rod-shaped objects streaking across the screen at high speed. Similar objects were later “discovered” in footage from around the world, and in Japan they were featured repeatedly on TV programs and became popular.
What are skyfish really?
They are actually insects such as flies and moths flying in front of the camera. Because the video camera’s shutter stays open while each frame is recorded, a flapping insect is stretched out and appears as a rod with fins. In one test, filming at a place where insect-catching nets had been set up captured the same number of insects as the “skyfish” seen in the footage.
