What a freeloader.

The last few posts have been a little on the serious and technical side, so I thought a change a pace might be a good idea.

Last year I met a very friendly and happy fellow diver who has one of the keenest senses of humor that I have encountered. However, he is a confirmed bachelor and is perhaps on the side of the fence that feels that marriage and relationships are much better left well alone (something about a messy divorce and being taken for a ride etc).

One day there were three of us diving together in a group and toward the end of the dive, our friend decided that he needed to get back to the boat. So we directed toward where the boat was and continued on with dive. In case you were wondering, the boat was close and our friend is a very experienced diver.

After the dive we changed out of gear and proceeded up to the deck to see why our friend had to abort the dive so early. It turned out that he needed to get back to the boat because of some biological issue (don't ask).

But this was not the real cause for great laughter and much teasing that day. It turned out that as soon as our friend left us, a Remora (slender sucker fish), wanted to attach itself to our friend's leg. The problem was that nothing he did, could persuade the troublesome freeloader from leaving our friend alone. He tried to frighten it away with a blast of air from his regulator, tried to swat at it and even tried to stab it with his diving knife. According to our friend, the fish was entirely convinced that its life depended on attaching itself to his leg. Apparently the Remora followed him all the way up to the boat and I am sure if it could it would have followed him onto the boat too.

Of course this juicy piece of information became widely known on the boat and thereafter the Remoras were known as his girlfriends. So it seems that even the female fish of this world wanted to take our friend for a ride!

For more information on the Remora see http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/enaucrates.htm

http://www.gma.org/fogm/Remora_remora.htm