Drafters...

Its a fairly common phenomena in the tropics to see big sharks or mantas accompanied by small jacks or trevally. These are usually known as pilot fish as they act like tug pilots leading big ships into harbour. In fact they're usually enjoying a hydrodynamic draft advantage and a little protection. The true Pilotfish is the black and white banded species Naucrates ductor but a number of other trevally try the same trick as juveniles....and like most juveniles they sometimes get it wrong......

This little Yellow Jack, Caranx bartholomaei, linked up with us instead and followed us faithfully for at least half an hour. It seemed particulalry obsessed with the shorts pictured above. At the very end of the dive it found another yellow jack juvenile by the boat and they enjoyed what can best be described as a joyous reunion before swimming off together.

As an aside getting picked up by these little chaps is very distracting underwater....you tend to catch glimpses of something very close to you in your peripheral vision and flinch a lot. You also have to put up with the other divers staring at the back of your head, which tends to make you self-conscious especially if you haven't worked out why yet. I try to look at it as a positive on the basis that at least they must think I look a bit shark like down there.