Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T21:42:21.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Whalesuckers on spinner dolphins: an underwater view

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

José Martins Silva-Jr  and
Ivan Sazima
José Martins Silva-Jr
Affiliation:
Centro Golfinho Rotador, CP 49, 53990-000 Fernando de Noronha, PE, Brazil
Ivan Sazima*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zoologia and Museu de História Natural, CP 6109, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Ivan Sazima, Departamento de Zoologica and Museu de História Natural, CP 6109, Universidade Estatual de Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil email: isazima@unicamp.br
Get access

Abstract

At Fernando de Noronha Archipelago in the tropical West Atlantic, spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) regularly congregate in a shallow bay where they engage in resting, social, and eliminative behaviours. The dolphins' congregation allowed underwater observations from close quarters of the whalesucker (Remora australis), an open-water fish species found attached to cetaceans only and whose habits remain thus poorly known. Whalesuckers were recorded year-round on the Fernando de Noronha spinners. Estimated size-range of whalesuckers in 211 records was 4–52 cm in total length (TL). Number of fish per dolphin was 1–3, the most frequently recorded attachment place being the host's belly (78.2%). Ratio of whalesuckers to spinner dolphins was 1–1.8 (mean = 1.32; SD ± 0.47) over one year. Juvenile, recently recruited individuals (less than 10 cm TL) were recorded year-round. Whalesuckers occasionally fed on dolphin faeces, and thus would also be able to feed on plankton while riding the spinners. Cleaning of the host's wounds was recorded twice during the study. Adult fish side by side or close to each other were regarded as an indication of reproductive pairs. The association of the whalesuckers with a middle-sized, fast and social cetacean likely provided this remora with ride, food, increased opportunity for reproduction and mating place, and perhaps protection from fast predators such as sharks, tuna, and larger dolphins.

Keywords

dolphin–fish symbiosisRemora australisStenella longirastristropical West Atlantic
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 1 , January 2008 , e22
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alling, A. (1985) Remoras and blue whales: a commensal or mutual interaction? Journal of the American Cetacean Society 19, 6–19.Google Scholar
Altmann, J. (1974) Observational study of behavior: sampling methods. Behavior 49, 227–265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carleton, M.D. and Olson, S.L. (1999) Amerigo Vespucci and the rat of Fernando de Noronha: a new genus and species of Rodentia (Muridae: Sigmodontinae) from a volcanic island off Brazil's continental shelf. American Museum Novitates 3256, 1–59.Google Scholar
Clarke, E. and Nelson, D.R. (1997) Young whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, feeding on a copepod bloom near La Paz, Mexico. Environmental Biology of Fishes 50, 63–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cressey, R.F. and Lachner, E.A. (1970) The parasitic copepod diet and life history of diskfishes (Echeneidae). Copeia 1970, 310–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fertl, D. and Landry, A.M Jr. (1999) Sharksucker (Echeneis naucrates) on a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and a review of other cetacean–remora associations. Marine Mammal Science 15, 859–863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fertl, D. and Landry, A.M. Jr (2002) Remoras. In Perrin, W.F. et al. (ed.), Encyclopedia of marine mammals. New York: Academic Press, pp. 1013–1015.Google Scholar
Froese, R. and Pauly, D. (eds.) (2006) FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org.Google Scholar
Gooding, R.M. and Magnuson, J.J. (1967) Ecological significance of drifting objects to pelagic fishes. Pacific Science 21, 486–497.Google Scholar
Gudger, E.W. (1926) A study of the smallest sharksuckers (Echeneididae) on record, with special reference to metamorphosis. American Museum Novitates 234, 1–26.Google Scholar
Lehner, P.N. (1979) Handbook of ethological methods. New York: Garland STPM Press.Google Scholar
Lodi, L. (1998) Comensalismo entre peixes recifais do Arquipélago de Fernando de Noronha e golfinhos-rotadores, Stenella longirostris. Biotemas 11, 127–132.Google Scholar
Norris, K.S. and Dohl, T.P. (1980) Behavior of the Hawaiian spinner dolphin, Stenella longirostris. Fishery Bulletin 77, 821–849.Google Scholar
Norris, K.S., Würsig, B. and Wells, R.S. (1994) Aerial behavior. In Norris, K.S. et al. (eds.) The Hawaiian spinner dolphin. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 287–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Toole, B. (2002) Phylogeny of the species of the superfamily Echeneoidea (Perciformes: Carangoidei: Echeneidae, Rachycentridae, and Coryphaenidae), with an interpretation of echeneid hitchhiking behaviour. Canadian Journal of Zoology 80, 596–623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radford, K.W. and Klawe, W.L. (1965) Biological observations on the whalesucker, Remilegia australis Echeneiformes: Echeneidae. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 14, 67–72.Google Scholar
Randall, J.E. (1967) Food habits of reef fishes of the West Indies. Studies on Tropical Oceanography 5, 665–847.Google Scholar
Rice, D.W. and Caldwell, D.K. (1961) Observations on the habits of the whalesucker (Remilegia australis). Norsk Hvalfangst-Tidende 5, 181–189.Google Scholar
Ritter, E.K. (2002) Analysis of sharksucker, Echeneis naucrates, induced behaviour patterns in the blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus. Environmental Biology of Fishes 65, 111–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, C.R. and Ray, G.C. (1986) A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Sazima, I. and Grossman, A. (2006) Turtle riders: remoras on marine turtles in SW Atlantic. Neotropical Ichthyology 4, 123–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sazima, I., Moura, R.L. and Rodrigues, M.C.M. (1999) Juvenile sharksucker, Echeneis naucrates (Echeneidae), acting as a station-based cleaner fish. Cybium 23, 377–380.Google Scholar
Sazima, I., Sazima, C. and Silva-Jr, J.M. (2003) The cetacean offal connection: feces and vomits of spinner dolphins as a food source for reef fishes. Bulletin of Marine Science 72, 151–160.Google Scholar
Silva-Jr, J.M., Pandolfo, L.J. and Sazima, I. (2004) Vomiting behavior of the spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) and squid meals. Aquatic Mammals 30, 271–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva-Jr, J.M. and Sazima, I. (2003) Whalesuckers and a spinner dolphin bonded for weeks: does host fidelity pay off? Biota Neotropica 3, 1–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva-Jr, J.M., Silva, F.J.L. and Pereira, J.A. (1996) O comportamento do golfinho rotador em F. de Noronha. In Del-Claro, K. (ed.) Anais 14 Encontro Anual de Etologia, Sociedade Brasileira de Etologia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, 16–19 Outubro 1996. São Paulo: Sociedade Brasileira de Etologia, pp. 251–262.Google Scholar
Silva-Jr, J.M., Silva, F.J.L. and Sazima, I. (2005) Rest, nurture, sex, release, and play: diurnal underwater behaviour of the spinner dolphin at Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, SW Atlantic. Aqua Journal of Ichthyology and Aquatic Biology 9, 161–176.Google Scholar
Strasburg, D.W. (1959) Notes on the diet and correlating structures of some central Pacific echeneid fishes. Copeia 1959, 244–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szidat, L. and Nani, A. (1951) Las remoras del Atlantico austral com un estudio de su nutricion natural y de sus parasitos. (Pisc. Echeneidae). Revista del Instituto Nacional de Investigacion de las Ciencias Naturales 2, 385–417.Google Scholar
Wedekin, L.L., Freitas, A., Engel, M.H. and Sazima, I. (2004) Rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis) catching diskfishes while interacting with humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) off Abrolhos bank breeding ground, Brazil. Aquatic Mammals 30, 327–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, E.H. Jr, Mignucci-Giannoni, A.A., Bunkley-Williams, R.K.B., Self-Sullivan, C., Pree, A. and Cockcroft, V.G. (2003) Echeneid-sirenian associations, with information on sharksucker diet. Journal of Fish Biology 63, 1176–1181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Würsig, B., Wells, R.S. and Norris, K.S. (1994) Food and feeding. In Norris, K.S. et al. (ed.) The Hawaiian spinner dolphin. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 216–231.Google Scholar