Kinematics of plaice, Pleuronectes platessa, and cod, Gadus morhua, swimming near the bottom

The kinematics of plaice (Pleuronectes platessa, L=22.1 cm) and cod (Gadus morhua, L=25.0 cm, where L is total fish length) swimming at various speeds at the bottom and lifted to heights, h, of 10, 50 and 100 mm by a thin-wire grid were measured. For cod, tailbeat frequency, amplitude, body and fin span and propulsive wavelength were unaffected by h and varied with speed as described for fusiform pelagic species. In contrast, the kinematics of plaice was affected by h. Body and fin spans and propulsive wavelength were independent of swimming speed and h. Tailbeat amplitude was independent of swimming speed, but averaged 1.5 cm at h=0 and 2.5 cm at h> or = 10 mm. Plaice tailbeat frequency increased with swimming speed for fish at the bottom but was independent of swimming speed at h=10, 50 and 100 mm, averaging 4.6, 6.0 and 5.8 Hz respectively. Total mechanical power, P, produced by propulsive movements calculated from the bulk-momentum form of elongated slender-body theory was similar for cod and plaice swimming at the bottom but, at h> or = 10 mm, P for plaice was larger than that for cod. Plaice support their weight in water by swimming at a small tilt angle. The small changes in swimming kinematics with swimming speed are attributed to decreasing induced power costs to support the weight as speed increases. The contribution of the tail to power output increased monotonically with the tail gap/span ratio, z/B, for z/B=0.23 (h=0 mm) to z/B=1.1 (h=50 mm). The smaller tailbeat amplitude of the tail decreased both z/B and the power output for plaice swimming at the bottom. For the maximum body and fin span of plaice, the contribution to power output increased for local z/B values of 0.044 (h-0 mm) to 0.1 (h=10 mm) and declined somewhat at larger values of z/B. The smaller effect of the bottom on power output of the large-span anterior body sections may result from the resorption of much of the upstream wake at the re-entrant downstream tail.