Remora Encounter

[ringmod65]

Last week, during a leisurely dive on the the Blue Hole in Nassau I had an extremely odd experience.

This was my first warm water diving since my honeymoon in Maui 18 years ago. As such, I don't have a lot of experience with the sea life in warmer environs.

I actually found the dive site rather boring. Sure, it's cool to see a fairly large hole in the ocean floor at about 45 feet, but there was little of interest in the hole itself. For this reason, I was just toddling around above the hole working on my trim. I noticed what I took for a shark swimming about a hundred feet in the hole and just hovered in place to watch. After about half a minute, I realize that the damned thing was swimming right towards me. Fast. Before I had much time to react the damned thing had a grip on my fins. I kicked and kicked but couldn't get away. It was at this time that I realized that it wasn't a shark, but a rather large (three foot) remora. This calmed me down quite a bit, but I still wasn't too crazy about the encounter. By now, the remora had quit going after my fins and instead had attached itself to my upper thigh (i had on swim trunks). I yanked and yanked, but it was only when I pushed its head down my leg that I was able to remove it. We swam off in different directions and I ended the dive shortly thereafter.

Ever since, I've had a strange sensation (though no mark) on my thigh. It almost feels as if the bond was electro-chemical in nature and has some type of lingering effect. I've since done a bit of research and it seems that the attachment mechanism is indeed suction-based, which leads me to believe that my symptom is psychosomatic.

I dived a three mil jumpsuit for the rest of the week.

 

[captain]

I have had them try to bum a ride a few times.

 

[jswantek]

I suspect foul play...

 

[Doc]

Wait until you meet a pesky Crinoid in the Indo-Pacific.

Velcro covered love-balls, they are.

 

[Lee Taylor]

I am glad to hear that the attachment method is by suction. I had a similar experience while waiting for a dive boat to motor over and pick us up. We were finishing up a night drift dive offshore the east coast of southern Florida. While bobbing on the surface waiting for the boat, I felt something below. I put on my mask, looked under the surface and saw three large very aggressive remora's. They were definitely trying to attach. I fought with them until the boat arrived. Very bothersome critters. Will not take no for an answer. They seem to like the entertainment. Kick em in the head and they come back for more.

 

[Splash-X]

I have had several encounters with much smaller remora. They freak my wife out all the time. I haven't had one latch on to me by they certainly annoying, you can feel them rubbing against you as they try to "clean" you.

I was leading a group once and was letting them swim around a "table top" formation. Viz was great and you could see the entire group while hovering above the reef. I watched as on male diver swam with board shorts and the remora kept swimming up his legs and under his swim trunks. No amount of smacking, swatting or anything would get that "sucker" to leave him alone. At the end of the dive it followed him up the anchor line to 15ft and stayed until the very end of the dive.


Not nearly as startling as your encounter but they are pesky, but we are in their ocean so we can't blame them for doing what they were put in the ocean to do, clean!

 

[Eau_Girl]

On one of my dive in Fiji (in October), I had a remora attached to me for over 30 minutes. He didn't bother me since I was wearing a 5mm wetsuit.

I did start to worry about what would happen to him when I climbed onto the boat. :nailbiter: Fortunately, we detached and went on his merry way before we got to that point!

 

[diver 85]

A good reason to not wear baggy swim trunks.........

 

[RikTikTavi]

I kind of miss my 'girlfriend' in Tahiti. A fairly large remora was attached to a shark swimming by us, but as the shark made a close pass, detached and suctioned up to my upper thigh. What an odd feeling! After swimming around together for a few minutes, I guess she decided she wasn't going to get anything, detached and went back to her old boyfriend. How fickle! I'm going to chalk it up as another one of those amazing events that have happened to me since becoming a diver.

Oh - my wife has forgiven me and is once again my dive buddy, if nothing else to keep a closer eye on me.

- Ric

 

[Splash-X]

No threesome? Wonder if her old boyfriend felt jelous? I'd watch my back now, never know when he's going to rough you up!