Environmental Impacts: Swimming Kinematics of Adult Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks

Project Lead: Marianne Porter, Ph.D.
Affiliated Home Campus: Boca Raton
Affiliated Department: Biological Sciences
REU Scholar: Danielle Anderson
REU Scholar Home Institution: California State University Monterey Bay

The Scalloped Hammerhead (Sphyrna Lewini) is one of nine Hammerhead species, and it has been listed as endangered since 2013. In order to better protect endangered species, it is critical to first understand their basic biology. This project analyzed the swimming kinematics of adult Scalloped Hammerheads and compared these findings with previous studies on juveniles. I quantified the average body curvature in turns, the tail beat and head yaw frequencies in straight swimming kinematics. To do this, I analyzed aerial drone footage of wild Scalloped Hammerheads using Logger Pro software. When analyzing turns with prey, I found an inverse relationship between body curvature and distance to the prey of interest. I found that the average distance between shark and prey right before a turn is about 1.25 body lengths. I quantified an increase in tailbeat frequency from 0.5 beats per second to 0.74 beats per second when in the presence of prey. This information on the basic swimming kinematics of scalloped hammerheads can be used to guide environmental management practices for designing and installing ocean current turbines under the Florida Atlantic University Marine Renewable Energy REU program.