Lateral Line Function and the Internal Dynamics of Fish Schools

Abstract

The question whether the lateral line plays a significant role in fish schooling has been posed repeatedly (Bateson 1889, Parker 1904, Parr 1927, Allen, Blaxter, and Denton 1976 and references in reviews by Shaw 1970, Radakov 1973). Until recently, however, and although some studies had indicated that information from the lateral lines might be utilized (Backus 1958, Disler 1963, Cahn, Shaw, and Atz 1968, Cahn 1972, Webb 1980), most authors considered vision to be the only, or at least the primary, sensory modality employed (e. g., Parr 1927, Bowen 1931, Schlaifer 1942, Breder 1951, 1959, Atz 1953, Hunter 1969, Shaw 1962, 1970). Observation that Pollachius virens (saithe) could school while temporarily blindfolded (Pitcher, Partridge, and Wardle 1976) and the subsequent detailed analysis of the effects of blindfolding or cutting the posterior lateral lines on schooling (Partridge and Pitcher 1980) demonstrated that the role of the lateral lines in normal schooling is far greater than had been previously recognized. Results from those studies, coupled with analyses of the internal dynamics of fish schools described below, begin to explain how sensory information from the lateral lines is used by individuals in the collective decision making process of the school.KeywordsLateral LineInternal DynamicsCollective DecisionSchool SizeFish SchoolThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.