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Photo-grammetric measurements of swimming speed and body length of basking sharks observed around the Hebrides, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2009

Claire Lacey ,
Russell Leaper ,
Anna Moscrop ,
Douglas Gillespie ,
Richard McLanaghan  and
Steve Brown
Claire Lacey*
Affiliation:
International Fund for Animal Welfare, 87–90 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7UD
Russell Leaper
Affiliation:
International Fund for Animal Welfare, 87–90 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7UD
Anna Moscrop
Affiliation:
International Fund for Animal Welfare, 87–90 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7UD
Douglas Gillespie
Affiliation:
Sea Mammal Research Unit, Gatty Marine Labotatory, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife
Richard McLanaghan
Affiliation:
International Fund for Animal Welfare, 87–90 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7UD
Steve Brown
Affiliation:
Ocean Alliance, 191 Weston Road, Lincoln, MA 01773 USA
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: C. Lacey, International Fund for Animal Welfare, 87–90 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7UD email: clacey@ifaw.org
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Abstract

Photo-grammetric techniques developed for measuring body length and small scale movement patterns of cetaceans were applied to surface swimming basking sharks off the west coast of Scotland. These methods removed the need for close approaches, reducing the likelihood of disturbing the focal animal. Average swimming speed was calculated from the total path length between shark locations measured at approximately one minute intervals. These average speeds varied from 0.49 to 0.73 ms−1 for tracks of between 30 and 170 minutes' duration. Body length measurements ranged between 2.35 and 6.43 m. For ten sharks where body length and swimming speed were measured there was a significant correlation between body length (L) and swimming speed (V) expressed as V = 0.36L033.

Keywords

basking sharkphoto-grammetric techniquessize estimation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 90 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 361 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2009

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