There are no systematic, direct measurements of the
maximum swimming speed at different temperatures.
But measurements of white muscle contraction time indicate
a higher maximum swimming speed in all species
at higher temperatures. Figure 5 shows the maximum
swimming speed of cod at temperatures between 2 and
12°C calculated from the measured muscle contraction
time (Videler and Wardle, 1991). These same authors
showed that fish can double their maximum swimming
speed with a temperature increase of 10°C, i.e. a Q 10 o f
2. Higher temperature allows a higher maximum tail
beat frequency (Wardle, 1980) and a higher power
output from the white muscle (Johnston and Salamonski,
1984).