Cost of Sustained and Burst Swimming to Juvenile Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)

The relationship between oxygen consumption rate (milligrams per kilogram per hour) and sustained swimming speed (calculated from tailbeat frequency) was determined for 1.2-g juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) at 15 °C. The data are best described by the following equation: log oxygen consumption rate = 2.2 + 0.13 (body lengths-s−1). This relationship is very similar to that extrapolated for sockeye salmon (O. nerka) of the same size, thus potentially enabling researchers to utilize the extensive sockeye data base to predict metabolic rates of coho. The oxygen consumption rate during burst swimming (9 body lengths∙s−1) was also determined. The burst swimming metabolic rate (38 000 mgO2∙kg−1∙h−1) is nearly 40 times greater than the maximum sustained swimming metabolic rate.