P DeBenedictis 1964 28 16 Jun or boarded "Golden Bear" off southern Mexico. all parts of the boat. A large school of porpoise, too far off to see any details was seen during the early part of studied. This was most interesting, and somewhere along this line something was dropped so the cactels had to go back and pick it up. At two went back to the symposium meeting; very hot and fell asleep. At 3:30 got out - saw 3 Red-tailed Tropic birds and a glimpse of a petrel (sp). About 4:10 a Red-footed Booby flew by, showing the red feet; another is sitting on the mast, there for e. half an hour. Near ran over a beach Petrels with an undivided rump patch. A few minutes later two Red-footed Boobys came up. About 4:20 saw another beach's Petrels flying near the stem at some distance e. best bird was a Red-footed Booby at about 5. The bird on the mast remained until at least 5:35; and maybe longer. Preening a lot. Everyone bored in the evening. Noon Position: 11°40'N, 101°00.0°W, ≈ 300 mi. S Acapulco, Mexico. The abundance of flying fish and the absence of birds in the ocean here suggest that this may be this sort of situation where flying fish arose. The absence of aerial predators for the great majority of its time gives the fish a chance to escape an immediate threat, and some flights are sufficiently prolonged to be of considerable survival value.