Sepia apama were tagged with acoustic transmitters and monitored on their native House Reef, Boston Bay, South Australia, with a radio acoustic positioning telemetry (RAPT) system. Cuttlefish were tagged with position-only and intra-mantle jet pressure transmitters. New data analyses were developed to handle problem data that arise with an uneven reef environment. Maximum range for the cuttlefish varied from 90 m to 550 m. Cuttlefish home range was between 5300 m2 and 23,700 m2. S. apama were found to be diurnal as average distance travelled was higher in the day than at night, and cuttlefish were active for 32 days, but only 18 nights. After the cuttlefish settled into reef crevices, activity spectrum and positioning analysis showed foraging behaviour at only 3.7% per day and 2.1% per night. Cuttlefish were found to spend more than 95% of the day resting, which suggests that their bioenergetics are more akin to those of octopus than of squid. The cuttlefish combination of predator avoidance, efficient foraging and quiescent lifestyle allows energy to be channelled into growth and fulfillment of the live-fast-die-young cephalopod philosophy. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Biological Sciences
Research Group:	Ecology
Research Field:	Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology)
Objective Division:	Animal Production and Animal Primary Products
Objective Group:	Fisheries - wild caught
Objective Field:	Fisheries - wild caught not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Jackson, GD (Dr George Jackson)
ID Code:	38491
Year Published:	2005
Web of Science® Times Cited:	37
Deposited By:	IASOS
Deposited On:	2005-08-01
Last Modified:	2006-05-10
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