A general swimming response in exhausted obligate swimming fish.

ABSTRACT: Marine organisms normally swim at elevated speeds relative to cruising speeds only during strenuous activity, such as predation or escape. We measured swimming speeds of 29 ram ventilating sharks from 10 species and of three Atlantic bluefin tunas immediately after exhaustive exercise (fighting a capture by hook-and-line) and unexpectedly found all individuals exhibited a uniform mechanical response, with swimming speed initially two times higher than the cruising speeds reached approximately 6 h later. We hypothesized that elevated swimming behaviour is a means to increase energetic demand and drive the removal of lactate accumulated during capture via oxidation. To explore this hypothesis, we estimated the mechanical work that must have been spent by an animal to elevate its swim speed a

SUBMITTER: Iosilevskii G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9490326 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature