#tiny cleaner

“Tiny Cleaner”

During winter, Port Jackson sharks on the east coast of Australia migrate from their summer feeding grounds in the Bass Strait and around Tasmania to their northern mating grounds, many of them gathering on Sydney’s shallow coastal reefs. After a busy night of mating, they spend the day resting on the seafloor. It’s during this daytime resting period that Port Jacksons are tended to by tiny eastern cleaner-clingfish. The cleaner-clingfish eat parasites that infect the shark’s skin, clean wounds, and mop up food scraps trapped inside the shark’s mouth. Their work done, they often exit the mouth by swimming through the shark’s gills.

William Gladstone, Australia