Vampire Fish

Okay you guys...I'm still FREAKED OUT by swimming with whale sharks. I'm going to do it...but i'm sooooooo afraid!  What is courage -- doing something when you are afraid!  I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it...but someone is going to be holding my hand!

But now I'm a bit worried about those fish that seem to be stuck to the whale sharks with their mouths.  Are they vampire fish? What if they come over and stick themselves to my face? Suck all my blood out? (I'm cracking myself up!)

Can someone find out what they are and tell me if I need to be afraid of them too? 

Here is the classification for the whale shark (I had to look it up because I didn't even know if it was a mammal or a fish?) I can tell it is a mammal...can you tell how I could tell?

Hey go check out the whale sharks cousin -- click on it's order Orectolobiformes (try saying that three times fast...or even once for that matter).  I like the word " wobbegong".

Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Chondrichthyes
Subclass:	Elasmobranchii
Order:	Orectolobiformes
Family:	Rhincodontidae J. P. Müller and Henle, 1839
Genus:	Rhincodon A. Smith, 1829
Species:	R. typus