This fish appears to be the Atlantic Flying Fish, Cheilopogon melanurus, rather than the Tropical Two-winged Flying Fish, Exocoetus volitans.
Both occur in the ocean around St Vincent in the southern Caribbean.
Flying fishes are difficult to identify “on the wing,” but the anal fin (the fin along the bottom) is much less pointed in E. volitans.
It’s unclear why flying fishes jump out of the water, and glide along the surface. The best idea seems to be that they developed the ability to avoid predators.
The artist is Gordon Drummond, born in 1921, in Cheshire, UK. He began as an engineer, then moved into designing greeting cards in 1950. He started designing postage stamps as a hobby, but started doing it full time. He’s designed stamps for over 70 postal authorities.
The stamps were printed by The House of Questa, a U.K. printer, who printed stamps between 1970 and 2002 when De La Rue printing company took them over, and closed out the Questa name.
(only 300 left to go)
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