Animals have finite energy stores and rates at which organisms acquire and use energy can have consequences for fitness. Furthermore, net rates of energy gain or loss can be affected in unknown or unpredictable ways in response to anthropogenic or environmental stressors. Elasmobranchs, in particular, represent some of the most exploited vertebrate taxa on the planet, and many species are data deficient with regard to a basic understanding of energetics or how stressors alter patterns of energy use and allocation. Therefore, the focus of this research was to define relationships between the behavior and energy use for a species of shark both undisturbed in the wild and subjected to the stress of fishing capture. To accomplish this goal, two complimentary series of experiments were conducted to define the frequency and energetic costs of different swimming behaviors in wild, free-swimming sharks (chapter one), and to define the effect of simulated commercial longline fishing capture on the swimming behavior and energy use of a shark (chapter two). The study presented in chapter one offered new insight into the energetics and behavioral partitioning of wild sharks, thereby providing a baseline from which to assess behavioral and, therefore, energetic responses of sharks to stressors. The study presented in chapter two offered an enhanced understanding of the energetics and behavioral responses of sharks to commercial longline capture, with implications for mitigating sub-lethal outcomes of fisheries capture for incidentally caught and released sharks. Together, these studies offer insight into why sharks behave the way they do, stressed or unstressed, and the energetic consequences of their actions, with application to elasmobranch conservation.
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Aerobic and anaerobic activity metabolism of an elasmobranch
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