The pilot fish (''Naucrates ductor'') is a

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

fish of the trevally, or jackfish family,

Carangidae The Carangidae are a family of ray-finned fish that includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, runners, trevallies, and scads. It is the largest of the six families included within the order Carangiformes. Some authorities classify it as the ...

. It is widely distributed and lives in warm or tropical open seas.

Description

The pilot fish congregates around

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...

rays Ray or RAY may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), the bony or horny spine on ray-finned fish Science and mathematics * Half-line (geometry) or ray, half of a line split at an ...

, and

sea turtles Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...

, where it eats

ectoparasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...

on, and leftovers around, the host species; younger pilot fish are usually associated with jellyfish and drifting seaweeds. They are also known to follow

ships A ship is a large vessel that travels the world's oceans and other navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, ...

, sometimes for long distances; one was found in

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, and many pilot fish have been sighted on the shores of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Their fondness for ships led the ancients to believe that they would navigate a ship to its desired course. The pilot fish's colour is between dark blue and blackish-silver, with the belly being lighter in colour.Eschmeyer & Herald 1999, p. 208. The pilot fish is also known to have a temporary variation of colour when excited; its dark-coloured bars disappear, and its body turns silvery-white, with three broad blue patches on its back. It can be recognised by its five to seven distinctive traverse bands, which are of a much darker colour than the rest of the body. The pilot fish can grow up to 60–70 cm in length. The pilot fish is edible and is said to taste good, but it is rarely available due to its erratic behaviour when caught. While pilot fish can be seen with all manner of sharks, they prefer accompanying the

oceanic whitetip shark The oceanic whitetip shark (''Carcharhinus longimanus'') is a large requiem shark inhabiting the pelagic zone of tropical and warm temperate seas. It has a stocky body with its iconic elongated rounded fins, with white tips. The species is ...

, ''Carcharhinus longimanus''. The pilot fish's relationship with sharks is a mutualist one; the pilot fish gains protection from predators, while the shark gains freedom from parasites. It was often said by

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

s that sharks and pilot fish share something like a "close companionship"; there were even tales of this fish following ships which had captured "their" shark for up to six weeks and showing signs of distress in its absence. It is rare that a shark will feed on a pilot fish, and smaller pilot fish are frequently observed swimming into sharks' mouths to clean away fragments of food from between their teeth.

Etymology and metaphors

There are a few possible, conflicting

etymologies Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

for the term "pilot fish". One is that seafaring people believed that pilot fish, which would appear around the bow of their ships when they were close to land, were leading (or piloting) them back to port. An alternative etymology is that pilot fish were once, erroneously, thought to be piloting sharks to food, or even (as legends have it) piloting ships, whales and swimmers to safety. The pilot fish is sometimes used as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

simile A simile () is a type of figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes are often contrasted with metaphors, where similes necessarily compare two things using words such as "like", "as", while metaphors often create an implicit c ...

; "they are like the pilot fish to the shark, serving to lead him to his victim". Pilot fish are also used as a metaphor or simile for scavengers or looters which accompany a greater threat.

In myth

In Greek mythology, a sailor called Pompilus helped the

nymph A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...

Ocyrhoe Ocyrhoe (; Ancient Greek: Ὠκυρόη) or Ocyrrhoe (Ὠκυρρόη) refers to at least five characters in Greek mythology. * Ocyrrhoe, one of the 3,000 Oceanids, water-nymph daughters of the Titans Oceanus and his sister-spouse Tethys. She ...

when she was fleeing away from the god

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

. The sailor moved the nymph from

Miletus Miletus (Ancient Greek: Μίλητος, Mílētos) was an influential ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in present day Turkey. Renowned in antiquity for its wealth, maritime power, and ex ...

Samos Samos (, also ; , ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese archipelago, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the Mycale Strait. It is also a separate reg ...

and the god punished him by making him a pilot fish. Pancrates of Arcadia stated that it was a sacred fish in honour to

Poseidon Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...

and that it was forbidden to eat it: actually a fisherman called Epopeus ate it and paid for his audacity with his life.

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

, ''Deipnosofistae'' 284a.

References

External links

Naucrates ductor
at

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q223289 Naucratinae Pantropical fish Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus