title: Skating by: low energetic costs of swimming in a batoid fish.
abstract: We quantify the oxygen consumption rates and cost of transport (COT) of a benthic batoid fish, the little skate, Leucoraja erinacea, at three swimming speeds. We report that this species has the lowest mass-adjusted swimming metabolic rate measured for any elasmobranch; however, this species incurs a much higher COT at approximately five times the lowest values recorded for some teleosts. In addition, because skates lack a propulsive caudal fin and could not sustain steady swimming beyond a relatively low optimum speed of 1.25 body lengths s(-1), we propose that the locomotor efficiency of benthic rajiform fishes is limited to the descending portion of a single COT-speed relationship. This renders these species poorly suited for long-distance translocation and, therefore, especially vulnerable to regional-scale environmental disturbances.
authors.affiliation: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA vdisanto@fas.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Di Santo
authors.affiliation: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA Department of Biology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher P
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3832-7001
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Kenaley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D012860:Skates, Fish / Q000502:physiology*; D013550:Swimming
keywords: COT; Elasmobranch; Locomotion; Metabolic rate; Performance