Manta Ray

Kevin realised yesterday that a new High Definition channel had appeared, Discovery HD, so we watched a couple of programmes on it last night.
One was about the Manta Ray, an amazing animal that can recognise individual human beings, even when they try to confuse the Mantas by changing clothes. Scientists think that they do this by distinguishing between different pairs of eyes, if the divers' eyes are covered, the Mantas can no longer tell them apart.

Another thing that was fascinating about these creatures was the relationship between them and the Remora fish, which you can see in this picture, stuck on to the Manta's back.
It used to be thought that maybe there was some kind of symbiotic relationship between the two, perhaps the remora removed parasites or cleaned up after the meals or something, but it is beginning to look more and more as though they are simply freeloaders, passengers - who says there is no such thing as a free lunch?

I find this idea quite interesting. In human society we are so used to the notion of reciprocity that when we find an example of freeloading in Nature, we can't get our heads round it, it does seem unnatural to us. And then we start to think, well, if it can happen elsewhere in Nature, maybe it could happen amongst our bit of it.

Naturalism in Philosophy doesn't mean thinking without your clothes on, but there are a couple of different definitions of it. In the field of Ethics, one definition is that we should look to the Natural World to tell us how to behave. If you can see it happen 'in Nature' then it's ok. The problem with this is that we don't end up with many rules and we can't agree on them anyway. Murder for example, is fairly common in the Natural World, but some people like to interpret it not as actually killing others of our own species just because we can, but as 'the survival of the fittest' or 'the law of the jungle'.
Homosexuality, we are told, is wrong because it 'isn't natural'. Yes it is. There are plenty of examples of it in Nature. And the biggest problem of all to the whole theory is that humans are part of Nature, so if we do it, then it's natural. And we do it.

A bit of a red herring, so back to the other fish. Why can't we deal with the idea of the remora fish giving nothing back to the Manta Ray? Because we can't, because even as I type it I am trying to think of what the Manta gets from the partnership.
Perhaps it gets lonely. It has behaviours apparently that indicate inquisitiveness, a sign of intelligence. Intelligence is enhanced by interaction. So why don't the Mantas simply all live together in pods like Whales or Dolphins?
Maybe they like company when they eat, it turns out that the remora, like the Manta, most likely filters plankton through its gills for food. Which doesn't strike me as the sort of eating which is best done in company, but I may be wrong.

The remora also seem to latch onto whales, sharks, sea turtles and even ships. Now the ship for sure isn't getting anything back from the remora.

So if it isn't symbiosis, do we think less of the fish? Hell yes. Well, I'm using the royal we of course, since I can't really speak for anyone else, but I'll continue to do so. Humans don't like freeloaders, we just don't. At best we struggle to work out what the hell is wrong with them to make them want to take but not give. Relationships cannot survive like this except where the 'host' has some deep-seated need to be needed. Each must not only know what they are getting from the other, but what they are giving too. We have a need for awareness, for transparency in all of our relationships. When we perceive an imbalance, unless we can correct it, either inside our head or through communication with the other, then that relationship is doomed, doomed I tell ye.

We keep pets and the pets give us.... whatever people get from pets. I often wonder what people get from keeping aquaria, but then they are supposed to be relaxing. People who keep snakes get to feel macho and tell tales of derring-do and shock others.
Whenever another is involved there is some degree of sharing, as soon as that bridge is crossed that first contact made, we share ideas, stories, jokes, food, intimacy, our lives.

But that's humans for you. Perhaps the Manta Ray doesn't need to receive anything from the remora fish.
Or maybe they'd just love to get rid of the little buggers.