Meeting Abstract

83.6  Thursday, Jan. 7  Aperture size effects in paralarval squid swimming STAAF, Danna J.*; DENNY, Mark W.; GILLY, William F.; Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University; Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University; Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University joyshul@stanford.edu

The recent range expansion of the Humboldt squid Dosidicus gigas has spurred studies on its swimming abilities and metabolic demands. These have generally focused on adults, which can be caught by jigs and tagged. The mobility of paralarvae is also an important factor in dispersal, but these smaller life stages are more difficult to find and impossible to study using the same techniques as for adults. We report here on the swimming behavior of paralarval squid, both from artificially fertilized eggs and from the first (and only) egg mass ever found in the wild. Standard and high-speed videos of the paralarvae were used to quantify swimming speed and mechanics. We found that D. gigas hatchlings employ multiple jet propulsive gaits to cover a range of speeds, and they may partially control their speed by altering the size of the jet aperture. We compare these findings to results from a computer model of squid swimming to test the hypothesis that aperture size is responsible for swimming speed in paralarval D. gigas.