Our manuscript “Swimming speeds and metabolic rates of semi-captive juvenile lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris, Poey) estimated with acceleration biologgers” was accepted for publication in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.
Understanding an animal’s activity levels and rates of energy expenditure (i.e., metabolic rate) in the wild is important because it provides details on a fish’s most energetically costly behavior – swimming – and can be used as a tool to determine how stressors may alter a fish’s routine energy requirements.
Here, we demonstrate the utility of acceleration logging tags for estimating swimming speeds and metabolic rates of juvenile lemon sharks swimming in an enclosed natural environment. In addition, we provide one of the only accounts of post-exercise recovery metabolism (akin to heavy breathing and and elevated heart rate after humans finish exercising) for a shark species, and suggest that lemon sharks have a limited capacity for exhaustive activity relative to “athletic” fishes (e.g., salmon).
This study was a collaborative effort between my home institutes, The Cape Eleuthera Institute and the University of Illinois, and the New England Aquarium, Carleton University, and Newcastle University.
Ian Bouyoucos 