dkktsunami
Contributor
I have had them try to bum a ride a few times.
Me too, but not on bare skin.
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I have had them try to bum a ride a few times.
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!