If this seems strange, remember that tuna have no arms. How else would they scratch themselves?
What's strange to me is that tuna even feel the urge to scratch themselves
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Tuna use sharks as back scratchers despite risk of being eaten
51–54 of 54 posts
Re: Tuna use sharks as back scratchers despite risk of being eaten
#52I guess "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" has never been more applicable. Such a strange behavior its hard to see the reasoning. Aren't tunas supposed to be semi-intelligent, as far as fish go? I feel like I remember seeing something like that before?
I guess you didn’t read the article to find the reason
Re: Tuna use sharks as back scratchers despite risk of being eaten
#53Re: Tuna use sharks as back scratchers despite risk of being eaten
#54A tuna is a seriously fast fish. Note that they rub at the back end of the shark, which is the obvious place to go. If the shark gets annoyed the tuna can get away rapidly and get a very decent head start before the shark has turned and got going. The sharks are probably not bothered about being used for grooming because it is reassuring to have your lunch check in and say hi occasionally. 6,000 camera deployments of…
If you have the opportunity I strongly recommend visiting the Tuna tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium during a feeding. Watching a fish the size of a VW Beetle swim 30 kilometers an hour is incredible.
Many moons ago I lived in Cyprus and rather enjoyed windsurfing. I recall a rather lovely session off Evdhimou beach in around 1986ish. The wind was 4-6 and nearly directly onshore, surf about 3 foot, so ideal conditions for seriously fast blasts for miles before a gybe and then more of the same. I was sailing a Fanatic Bee - semi sinker and a 5.5m2 sail.
I was doing a broad reach at full belt, bouncing over wave peaks, spray everywhere. That beach is very shallow - 1.5m (5') for about 1/2 mile or more and it is also basically quite flat. That means that waves are quite stable when you get there.
I came in from around 2 miles out. I'm hooked in, poised over the water about 18" from my bum doing around 20 knots. I'm perfectly balancing a shit load of forces and feeling absolutely invincible. I then see a dorsal fin rise up out of the water behind me and I came close to voiding my bowels. The Med doesn't have many sharks but there are some. Great whites turn up from time to time.
It was a porpoise.
I ran for around a mile with several porpoises bouncing around in my wake. I would twitch my board and they responded and pissed about in my tiny wake. They would probably prefer a bigger wake to play in but I was the best offer at the time.