The Remora Sucks

Once upon a time in Puerto Rico, I was SCUBA diving in the beautiful coral reefs and as I was ascending, someone noticed I had a passenger hanging onto my wetsuit. Low and behold it was a Remora (Remora remora)! Remora’s, also known as shark suckers, suckerfish, and hitch hikers, are an interesting fish because they do not have swim bladders as other fish do. This is why they have to ‘suck’ onto other animals to hitch a ride around. They have a sucking disc on top of their head that is made of moveable lamina which creates the vacuum that allows them to stick to another animal. Apparently, once it sticks to the host they don’t have to expend any energy to remain stuck; it’s a passive device. Remoras are usually seen hitching rides with sharks, sea turtles, rays, whales, boats, (and apparently people)!

This amazing creature has been revered and written about across the world. The ancient Greeks thought they had magical powers and could even cause an abortion if handled in a specific way. Other fishermen use them to catch fish by tying a line to their tail and sending them out and when they attach to a fish, they reel the attached remora in and capture its host. The Latin for remora means ‘holding back’ or ‘delay’ and was believed by the ancient Romans to have been the reason the Emperor Caligula died by fastening on and ‘holding back’ his ship, allowing it to be overtaken by the enemy. The Madagascar Shamans still attach remora’s suction disc to their wives necks to ensure they are faithful when their husbands aren’t around. Linnaeus named the species in 1758.

The remora is not considered a parasite, even though it attaches itself to a host. The remora is more of a cleaner fish, removing parasites from the host and even eating their feces. Small remoras have actually been found attached inside the mouths of sharks, but none have ever been found in the stomach of sharks. I guess the sharks tolerate them, like a symbiotic relationship. There are 8 species of remora’s and they are found in different aquatic habitats; wherever their host takes them! They share genetics with species such as the mahi mahi, cobia, and jack fish. Researchers do not know much about their reproductive behavior, but they have seen remora pairs attached to the same host.

So this brings me back to my SCUBA diving with a remora stuck to the back of my arm in Puerto Rico! One of my dive buddies was trying to tell me there was something stuck to my arm, but we didn’t have an underwater hand signal for remora or for something to be stuck on the back of your arm. He tried pointing to his arm, then pointing to me, and I just had no idea what he was talking about so he swam over to me, turned me around in the water, grabbed the remora off of the back of my arm and held in front of my face, which after my initial surprise, I went into a hysterical laughter, which caused my mask to flood, but turned out to be a good laugh on the boat.