Overview
- Griffith University’s Olaf Meynecke released new videos from suction camera tags on humpbacks migrating along Australia’s east coast.
- The footage shows remoras detaching during rapid ascents or breaches and reattaching within moments while moving nimbly around the whale.
- Adhesion depends on head plates that create a vacuum effect and a modified dorsal fin rather than true suction.
- Remoras were recorded eating sea lice and, at times, ingesting shed whale skin when other prey was scarce.
- Researchers tallied about 15–20 fish on many whales, up to roughly 50, observed whales eyeing them and breaching repeatedly, and flagged open questions about host loyalty and travel to Antarctic feeding grounds.