Dear MARMAMers
 
Further to my request on information of suckerfish collected directly from cetaceans I want to share a summary of the responses I had:
 
- Four specimens of R. australis were collected from blue whales in Uruguay and are housed at the USNM. Records and related data are available online at: http://vertebrates.si.edu/fishes/fishes_collections.html. 
- Six R. australis were collected from Delphinus delphis in the Pacific ocean, related to tuna seiners operations and are housed at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Museum.
- An increase have recently been noted in the presence of a freswater fish (Hypostomus plecostomus, also known as suckerfish), on manatees in Florida.
- Pictures of a suckerfish were taken in 2003 during a during a capture-release health assessment of bottlenose dolphins near Charleston, South Carolina.
- A pdf of the article: Feeding of sea lampreys Petromyzon marinus on minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata in the St Lawrence Estuary, Canada (2011) by O.C. Nichols and U.T. Tscherter was received.
- I also received several pictures of free ranging marine mammals with unidentified remoras attached.
- At the end of the message, I have included some bibliographic references that could be of interest for members of this list.
 
As I mentioned in my original message, it looks as though there are not many museum specimens that have been collected directly from cetaceans. It is kind of interesting as most of us field researchers are very familiar with the image of (unidentified) remoras hitchiking on cetaceans.
 
My team will keep working on this issue and I appreciate a lot any more news on the topic to be forwarded to my gmail address: bolanos.jimenez@gmail.com
 
I am very grateful to Meghan Bills, Manuel Correia, Manuel Fernandez, Dagmar Fertl, Denise Herzing, Roee Maor, James Mead, Antonio Mignucci, Eduardo Morteo, Kimberly New, Kevin Robinson, Stephanie Snyder, Vic Springer, Leonardo Wedekin, Jeff Williams and Eric Zolman for their help and the time they devoted to provide me with responses.
 
 
Some important references:
 

Fertl, D. & Landry, A.M., 1999. Sharksucker (Echeneis naucrates) on a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and a review of other cetacean–remora associations. Marine Mammal Science, 15, 859–863.

Sazima, I. & Grossman, A., 2006. Turtle riders: remoras and marine turtles in Southwest Atlantic. Neotropical Ichthyology, 4, 123–126.

Sazima, I., Moura, R.L. & Rodrigues, M.C.M., 1999. A juvenile sharksucker, Echeneis naucrates (Echeneidae), acting as a station-based cleaner fish. Cybium, 23, 377–380.

Sazima, I., Sazima, C. & Silva-Jr, J.M., 2003. The cetacean offal connection: feces and vomits of spinner dolphins as a food source for reef fishes. Bulletin of Marine Science, 72, 151–160.

Silva-Jr, J.M. & Sazima, I., 2003. Whalesuckers and spinner dolphin bonded for weeks: does host fidelity pay off? Biota Neotropica, 3, 1–5.

Silva-Jr, J.M. & Sazima, I., 2006. Whalesuckers on spinner dolphins: an underwater view. JMBA2 – Biodiversity Records, 6 pp. http://www.mba.ac.uk/jmba/jmba2biodiversityrecords.php

Silva-Jr, J.M., Silva, F.J.L. & Sazima, I., 2005. Rest, nurture, sex, release, and play: diurnal underwater behaviour of the spinner dolphin at Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, SW Atlantic. Aqua Journal of Ichthyology and Aquatic Biology, 9, 161–176.