Fish bravely use sharks’ rough skin to clean themselves
Fish keep their friends close, and their enemies closer… but only because they need to exfoliate. Researchers recently discovered that different species of fish use sharks as scrub brushes by pushing up against the sea predators’ scaly bodies to get rid of parasites and other irritants. Though this dangerous behaviour has been observed before, it wasn’t clear just how common it was. Lacey Williams and Alexandra Anstett, graduate students at the University of Miami, first observed this behaviour with drones while collecting data on great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. But it wasn’t until they saw this same chafing behaviour in a social media post from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy that they realised that their observations weren’t an isolated incident.