Sharksucker Remora Caught at Point Lookout

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Southern
Location: Point Look out

A friend of mine caught this at Point Lookout on 8/2/12, can you help me identify this fish?

DNR's Response: Albert, you caught a sharksucker remora. Several species of remora have been recorded in the Bay, but the sharksucker remora is the only species encountered regularly. These fish are often caught while chumming, and seem to spend a considerable amount of time free-swimming alone or in schools, despite their ability to attach to large fish with the sucking disk on their head. Some of the reports we get mistake this remora for a young, deformed cobia because of the white and black stripes on its sides. Remoras are reported as for north as the Bay Bridge.

Tags: sharksucker remora