The Buoyancy of the Cuttlefish, Sepia Officinalis (L.)

Abstract

The excess weight in sea water of the living tissues of Sepia officinalis (L.) is approximately balanced by the cuttlebone, which accounts for about 9·3% of the animal's volume. The density of cuttlebone varies around 0·6. The cuttlefish without its cuttlebone would be about 4% denser than sea water.The chambers of the cuttlebone are independent of one another but liquids and gases are free to move within any one chamber.Animals caught and studied fresh aboard ship exhibited a much less wide range of cuttlebone densities than those kept in an aquarium.Specimens kept in aquaria vary greatly in buoyancy. These variations result from changes in density of the cuttlebone.Cuttlebones differ not in the weight of dry matter per unit volume, which is always close to 38%, but in the amount of liquid they contain. A cuttlebone of density 0·7 contains about 30% liquid whereas a cuttlebone of density 0·5 contains about 10% liquid. The remainder of the cuttlebone contains gas, but this gas is at less than atmospheric pressure. The pressure of gas varies around 0·8 atmosphere. Within the duration of the experiments described here, the mass of gas per unit volume of bone remained almost constant whatever the bone's density. The pressure of gas is lower the less dense the cuttlebone. There can be no question of an evolution of gas expelling liquid from a bone when it becomes lighter. The constancy of the mass of gas within the cuttlebone is explained in terms of the slowness of diffusion of gases into the bone.