I am slowly working my way backwards thru my emails & thot this tidbit of
info from a friend of mine who is seriously in to dugongs mite interest
some of ya.  Well, uummmmm ...maybe not if you are just gonna eat ya
dinner.  And here I was thinking those remoras I'd seen hanging off
dugongs and turtles were just hitching a ride.

Years back when we were still on scuba-l I posted about the incident we
had involving Hans up at Coral Bay. Here's the story if ya wanna refresh
your memories.  In the Scuba-l archives it is Item #141 dated 8 Apr 1999
titled - Some days your better of staying in bed... (very long)
Viv
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rothauscher" <[log in to unmask]>
>Hello Vivien,
>You remember your first eMail about dugongs and huge sharksuckers
>hanging on them.  Well, scientists have just found out how the
>fish might benefit from this association.  Its in fact quite
>disgusting indeed.
>
> "Association of the sharksucker/Echeneis naucrates and
> whitefin sharksucker/E. neucratoides with the West Indian
> manatee/Trichechus manatus and the dugong/Dugong dugon is
> presented and discussed. Alimentary tract-content analysis
> and field observations suggest that coprophagy (feeding on
> host faecal material) may be the primary food source for
> echeneids associated with sirenian hosts."
>
> Uuuuargh.
> Hans
http://home.t-online.de/home/rothauscher/