It happened in this way. My boat was anchored in Sarasota Bay, Florida, when one day I was examining the pintles and rudder hinges before sailing, when I noticed several remoras attached to the stern of the vessel. With a hook and hand-line and venison for bait I caught them all, four of them, in less than four minutes, for they were exceedingly voracious. When the bait was dangled near one he immediately left his anchorage and seized it.
U. S. Bureau of Fisheries.
Fig. 1. Ten Pounder. (Elops saurus.)
Fig. 2. Ladyfish. (Albula vulpes.)
The Remora (Remora remora)
The remora is one of the most interesting fishes known to science. Its first dorsal fin is developed as a sucking disk of an oval shape on the top of the head and nape. It is formed of a series of thin plates, or laminæ, overlapping like the slats of a Venetian blind, and by which it can firmly attach itself to a comparatively smooth surface. I have seldom caught a shark or a ray that did not have one or more attached to its skin. When a shark seizes his prey, and is cutting it up with his terrible teeth, the remora is quick to discover any fragments of the feast and profits by it, when it again returns to its anchorage. |A Convenient Device|It does no harm to the shark, for it is not truly parasitic, like the lamprey, but uses its host as a means for transportation and profit, like the politician in the band wagon.
As a Fishing Device
The remora is easily removed from its attachment by a quick, sliding motion, but resists a direct pull to a remarkable degree. Owing to this fact the natives of tropical countries are said to utilize it for catching fish, by fastening a ring and line to its caudal peduncle and casting it into the water to become attached to other fish, when both are hauled in. I had often read of this, and once I tried it, but caught only a loggerhead turtle of twenty pounds. The strain on the remora, however, was so demoralizing to its physical economy that I was fain to kill it.
Phosphate Fishing