Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T11:53:31.384Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Body temperature of the salmon shark, Lamna ditropis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

R. L. Smith
Affiliation:
Biology Program, Division of Life Sciences
D. Rhodes
Affiliation:
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska

Extract

The salmon shark, Lamna ditropis Hubbs and Follett, is a streamlined, pelagic predator capable of rapid swimming locomotion, very similar to its close relative, the Atlantic porbeagle, Lamna nasus (Bonnaterre). The porbeagle is warm-bodied, maintaining deep body temperatures 7–11 °C above those of the surface water from which they are captured (Carey & Teal, 1969a). Presumably, Lamna ditropis is also warm-bodied. Opportunities to measure temperatures of salmon sharks occurred on 2, 4 and 5 September 1979, when one of us (D.R.) hooked and landed three salmon sharks while hand-trolling for salmon. The sharks were all caught near Cape Edgecumbe, about 60 km from Sitka, Alaska (57° 6´N, 135° 55´ W) at a depth of 12–40 m.

Type
Short Note
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)