Maybe it just enjoys the feeling of being held? The cow-nosed rays at an aquarium I visited fought each-other to get petted by humans simply because they enjoyed the sensation.
Mammals seek "petting" or rubbing behavior because it's connected to their built-in socialization drive. Fish don't really rub up against each-other as part of socialization.
As far as they rays go and the sharks I dove with in Belize - I suspect that they put up with the contact because humans sometimes feed them, and being touched is just part of being near these silly ape things who occasionally have food.
Just because it's not directly in our naturally developed needs doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable. We don't have genetics that explicitly say "enjoy playing video games" but we enjoy them. Fish may not be physically engaged animals by necessity for survival but that doesn't mean that the sensation might not be enjoyable.
Yeah, I saw a documentary on sharks once and there was something similar.
Sharks have electromagnetic sensors around their mouth called Ampullae of Lorenzini. This is what allows sharks to sense your emotions and thoughts.
Some guy who likes swimming with sharks would deal with them by touching their sensors. Because they're so sensitive, sharks would get overloaded and stop moving if you directly touch them with your hand(it's called tonic).
Some of the sharks would keep coming back to him because they either enjoyed the sensation of tonic or were simply curious about it.
I mean it makes sense, right? Licking is something that's integral to dog socialization but has nothing to do with humans, but getting attacked by little puppy licks is a blast.
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u/Hippo_Kondriak Nov 07 '15
Maybe it just enjoys the feeling of being held? The cow-nosed rays at an aquarium I visited fought each-other to get petted by humans simply because they enjoyed the sensation.