The Relation of Size to Rate of Oxygen Consumption and Sustained Swimming Speed of Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka)

Abstract

The relation of size (log weight, g) to metabolic rate (log O2-uptake, mg O2/hr) of sockeye salmon was found to have a continuous change in slope (0.78–0.97) with increasing activity at 15 C.The slope of the equation relating the 60-min sustained swimming speed (log speed, cm/sec) to length (cm) had a value of 0.50, demonstrating a rapid decrease in relative performance with increasing size.