Rare footage shows sucker fish as they whale-surf in the ocean’s wildest joyride

By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — There are easier ways to cross an ocean, but few are as slick or stylish as the remora’s whale-surfing joyride.

Scientists tracking humpbacks off the coast of Australia have captured rare footage that shows clutches of the freeloading fish peeling away from their host in what looks like a high-speed game of chicken, just moments before the whale breaches.

As the humpback plunges back below the surface the remoras, also known as sucker fish, return to the whale, sticking their landings with the timing and precision of Olympic gymnasts. It’s elegant work for a hitchhiking fish that lives upside-down and survives on dead skin flakes.

Remora australis spend their lives aboard whales or other large marine mammals, which they ride