Kinematics and performance of maneuvering control surfaces in teleost fishes

Many fishes routinely exploit resources in high-energy marine habitats of interest to ocean engineers, including rocky coasts and coral reefs. How fishes modulate fin motions to correct perturbations to the preferred heading or to maneuver in complex structure should interest both biologists and ocean engineers. These fin motions are reviewed in order to generate simple models of causal relationships between fin design, motion, and maneuvering performance. The available data on maneuvering performance in fishes is reviewed to compare to the simple models, to identify gaps in our knowledge, and to outline a research program to address these gaps more effectively.