"SEALS IN SPACE: MARINE MAMMAL STRATEGIES FOR COST
EFFICIENT LOCOMOTION IN THREE DIMENSIONS"
Marine mammals must carefully balance locomotor costs
against limited
on-board energy supplies to accomplish underwater tasks
while holding their
breath. After 50 million years of evolutionary
modification, seals,
dolphins and whales have developed a wide variety of
morphological,
behavioral and physiological mechanisms to facilitate
energetic efficiency.
This talk will demonstrate how energy saving mechanisms
differ between
surface horizontal swimming and deep diving activities
in free-ranging
marine mammals from the blue whale to the Weddell seal
hunting under the
Antarctic sea ice. Using data from time-depth instrumentation,
speed
meters and underwater cameras worn by the animals, the
speaker will
demonstrate how marine mammals use the extreme physical
conditions at depth
to their locomotor advantage. Such strategies by
marine mammals provide
new biological based insights regarding the performance
of autonomous
man-made vehicles operating in remote environments.