Abstract
Using a turtle-borne camera system, changing flipper beat frequency and amplitude were measured in five diving green turtles (Chelonia mydas Linnaeus 1758) in the Bahía de los Angeles, Mexico (28°58′N, 113°33′W). These observations were made between June and August 2002. Turtles worked hardest (i.e., had the highest flipper beat frequency and amplitude) at the start of descents when positive buoyancy is predicted to oppose their forward motion. During the later part of descents, turtles worked less hard in line with opposing buoyancy forces being reduced. For example, flipper beat frequency declined from about 60–80 beats min−1 at the start of descent to around 25–40 beats min−1 after 30 s of the descent. At the start of ascents the flipper beat frequency was around 30 beats min−1, lower than on descent, and declined as the ascent progressed with often passive gliding for the final few meters to the surface. This pattern of effort during diving appears to apply across a range of marine reptiles, birds and mammals suggesting that graded effort during descent and ascent is an optimum solution to minimising the cost of transport during diving.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the following individuals for their field assistance: Marcos Blanco, Fernando Clemente, Steve Collins, Jennifer Gilmore, Anthony Lusk, Alexa McDermott, Antonio Resendiz, Travis Smith, and Lucy Yarnell. Special thanks go to Kira Fuchs, Scott Snider, Lynne Barre and the National Geographic Special Projects team for providing technical assistance with Crittercam throughout this project. This work was supported by Earthwatch Institute, National Geographic Special Projects, Wallace Research Foundation and the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK (NERC). Research was authorized by the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente, Recursos Naturales, y Pesca (Permit numbers 150496-213-03, 280597-213-03, 190698-213-03, 280499-213-03) and the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Permit # SGPA/DGVS/002). We thank two anonymous referees for their comments which greatly improved the final manuscript.
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Communicated by J.P. Grassle, New Brunswick
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Hays, G.C., Marshall, G.J. & Seminoff, J.A. Flipper beat frequency and amplitude changes in diving green turtles, Chelonia mydas . Mar Biol 150, 1003–1009 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-006-0412-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-006-0412-3