What are Suckerfish doing when a whale leaps out of the water?

 

Remoras, also known as suckerfish or shark-suckers, attach themselves to large marine animals like whales and sharks for food and shelter. But have you ever wondered what happens when a whale breaches the water? Scientists recently captured a rare scene: the moment a whale breaches the surface, these remoras transform into "wild surfers," instantly escaping from the whale's body, only to precisely reattach themselves as soon as the whale dives back into the water.

According to a CNN report, scientists tracking humpback whales off the coast of Australia recently captured this rare footage. They discovered that the instant a humpback whale breaches the water, swarms of remoras immediately swim away from the whale, and when the whale falls back into the water, they precisely wait at the spot where the whale landed and reattach themselves, their timing as precise as Olympic athletes.

Scientist Olaf Meynecke points out, "They know exactly when to release the whale's body before it breaches the surface, and then return to the same spot a few seconds later."

Meynecke notes that some whales have many of these remoras, up to 50, and some whales seem impatient with these "hitchhikers," repeatedly breaching the water to try and shake them off, and then checking their numbers after resurfacing.