ESR Endangered Species Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials ESR 4:157-164 (2008) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00052 Flexible paddle sheds new light on speed: a novel method for the remote measurement of swim speed in aquatic animals Emily L. C. Shepard1,*, Rory P. Wilson1, Nikolai Liebsch1, Flavio Quintana2,3, Agustina Gómez Laich2, Klaus Lucke4 1Biological Sciences, Institute of Environmental Sustainability, University of Wales, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK 2Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT)-CONICET, (9120) Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina 3Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Boulevard, New York, New York 10460, USA 4Forschungs- und Technologiezentrum Westküste, Hafentörn, 25761 Büsum, Germany *Email: 381601@swansea.ac.uk ABSTRACT: Speed is a key determinant of energy expenditure in free-living animals, and particularly in marine vertebrates, where power requirements for swimming increase as a cubed function of the speed. However, current devices used to measure swim speed in free-living animals have limitations, including excessive drag, low resolution, high stall speed (ca. 0.3 m s1), cost, biofouling and susceptibility to damage. We present a speed sensor system that utilises the reflectance of infrared light against a flexible paddle that bends in relation to the flow of water over the study animal. In laboratory trials, this performed well across a range of speeds (0.1 to 1.75 m s1), and had a stall speed of 0.1 m s1. The advantages of this present paddle system are that it is impervious to the presence of matter in the water column, is inexpensive and easily replaceable. Furthermore, the system is able to record speed data at an unparalleled resolution, limited solely by sampling frequency. Data from deployments of devices on free-living imperial cormorants Phalacrocorax atriceps identified changes in speed within and between swim strokes, and also showed that greater speed was generated per kick as the buoyancy decreased with depth. As such, the flexible paddle system holds promise for the measurement of speed in free-living, aquatic animals. KEY WORDS: Speed · Dive behaviour · Electronic tagging · Marine predator · Energy expenditure · Flow meter Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Shepard ELC, Wilson RP, Liebsch N, Quintana F, Gómez Laich A, Lucke K (2008) Flexible paddle sheds new light on speed: a novel method for the remote measurement of swim speed in aquatic animals. Endang Species Res 4:157-164. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00052 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESR Vol. 4, No. 1-2. Online publication date: January 18, 2008 Print ISSN: 1863-5407; Online ISSN: 1613-4796 Copyright © 2008 Inter-Research.