Effects of seasonal change on activity rhythms and swimming behavior of age-0 bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) and a description of gliding behavior

Daily and seasonal activity rhythms, swimming speed, and modes of swimming were studied in a school of spring-spawned age-0 bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) for nine months in a 121-kL research aquarium. Temperature was lowered from 20° to 15°C, then returned to 20°C to match the seasonal cycle. The fish grew from a mean 198 mm to 320 mm (n= 67). Bluefish swam faster and in a more organized school during day (overall mean 47 cm/s) than at night (31 cm/s). Swimming speed declined in fall as temperature declined and accelerated in spring in response to change in photoperiod. Besides powered swimming, bluefish used a gliding-upswimming mode, which has not been previously described for this species. To glide, a bluefish rolled onto its side, ceased body and tail beating, and coasted diagonally downward. Bluefish glided in all months of the study, usually in the dark, and most intensely in winter. Energy savings while the fish is gliding and upswimming may be as much as 20% of the energy used in powered swimming. Additional savings accrue from increased lift due to the hydrofoil created by the horizontal body orientation and slightly concave shape. Energy-saving swimming would be advantageous during migration and overwintering

The Crustacean and Molluscan Fisheries of Honduras

Honduras has many communities of artisanal fishermen who land various species of crustaceans and mollusks, using hands, nets, traps, and free diving from shore and from dugout canoes. It also has industrial fisheries for spiny lobster, Panulirus argus; queen conch, Strombus gigas; and mainly pink shrimp, Penaeus notialis, using traps, scuba divers, and trawl nets

"Building" exact confidence nets

Confidence nets, that is, collections of confidence intervals that fill out the parameter space and whose exact parameter coverage can be computed, are familiar in nonparametric statistics. Here, the distributional assumptions are based on invariance under the action of a finite reflection group. Exact confidence nets are exhibited for a single parameter, based on the root system of the group. The main result is a formula for the generating function of the coverage interval probabilities. The proof makes use of the theory of "buildings" and the Chevalley factorization theorem for the length distribution on Cayley graphs of finite reflection groups.Comment: 20 pages. To appear in Bernoull