In last twenty years, biologists, increasingly inter-
ested in the mechanics of living organisms[46], have
undertaken many biomechanical studies of living fishes
and the mechanical properties of their tissues. Just this
year, two books providing an overview of fish biomechanics and physiology have appeared and a number of recent review papers describe new results on the biomechanics of fishes relevant to locomotion through water[3,918]. At the same time, engineers have increasingly begun to fashion underwater robotic vehicles based on inspiration from living fishes[1922]. As
the communities of researchers interested in engineering robotic underwater vehicles and biologists who havestudied the biomechanics of living fishes begin to come
together[23,24], this seems like a propitious time to sum-