Flying gurnards belongs to the familyDactylopteridae, distributed in tropical Indo-Pacificand Atlantic oceans. From the 7 speciesrepresenting two genera, Dactylopterus andDactyloptena only four species such asDactyloptena gilberti, D. macracantha,D. orientalis and D. peterseni are found in thewestern Indian Ocean. These are small to moderatesized marine bottom dwelling fish and mostlycaught by bottom trawls as by-catch in the nearshore waters and not having much commercialvalue
