If you\u2019ve ever wondered how and why \u2018sucker fish\u2019 hitch a \u2013 usually \u2013 wild ride with a humpback whale on the move, new footage captured from camera-tagged whales reveals the secret lives of remoras, and just how dedicated these hangers-on really are.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Olaf Meynecke in the field. <\/p>\n
Dr Olaf Meynecke<\/a>, a Griffith University marine scientist and co-leader of the Whales and Climate Research Program<\/a>, captured several videos of remoras (commonly referred to as \u2018sucker fish\u2019) hitchhiking on migrating humpback whales along the East Coast of Australia during his regular fieldwork season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr Meynecke routinely deploys suction camera tags to monitor the behaviour and migration patterns of humpback whales, and knows remoras are always likely to be in the frame as they spend their life attached to whales \u2013 not just for the ride but also for food.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think one of the biggest surprises when we investigate videos captured from our tags was the remoras\u2019 ability to move around freely and keep returning to the whale\u2019s body, even during very fast ascents to the surface and immediately after the whale breaches and returns to the water,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have also been able to observe a remora ingesting whale skin, suggesting that at times, when other ectoparasites were not available on the whale, they took advantage of the whales constantly shedding their skin.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was amazing to see how fast and nimble they were during several different rides with the whales.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey seem to have developed an adaptation to hydrodynamics \u2013 they don\u2019t actually create a suction, the plates on top of their heads create a vacuum effect that helps them almost adhere to the whales, plus they grip to the whales body using their modified dorsal fin.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr Olaf Meynecke <\/p>\n Some species of remora such as the \u2018whale sucker\u2019 (Remora australis) preferred whales as their host but they were also seen riding under sharks, manta rays, dolphins, turtles, and dugongs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n They have even been known to attach themselves to boats and scuba divers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRemoras are harmless and are not a parasite to the whales; in fact, they can benefit the whale by removing sea lice and other crustaceans wanting to settle on the whale\u2019s body,\u201d Dr Meynecke said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, they do seem to be in much higher numbers \u2013 about 15-20 remoras per whale \u2013 with whales that appear to shed more skin.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr Meynecke captured multiple videos of remora behaviour via camera suction tags deployed on migrating humpback whales as part of his everyday research. <\/p>\n \u201cIn some cases, we saw as many as 50 remoras on a single whale.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven though they are likely beneficial for the whales, as they eat other host organisms such as sea lice, the whales seem to dislike their presence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have observed whales eyeing them, undertaking multiple breaches then checking again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr Meynecke said the footage provided rare and interesting insights into some of the relationship quirks between whales and remoras, but there were still mysteries around the remoras\u2019 behaviour and movement patterns.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know if the remoras also head down to Antarctica with the whales \u2013 some may, but we don\u2019t know how long they\u2019ll attach themselves to a specific host,\u201d Dr Meynecke said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere is also the interesting life cycle of remoras.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTheir spawning takes place in the East Australian Current, then the little larvae develop to tiny suckerfish but have to then find a host.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat could suggest the time of reproduction could be linked to the whales\u2019 migration cycle.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve ever wondered how and why \u2018sucker fish\u2019 hitch a \u2013 usually \u2013 wild ride with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-128654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Dr Meynecke deploys a camera suction tag on a humpback whale off Gold Coast waters. <\/p>\n