Barry White Songs Serenade Sharks
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:43 a.m. ET
BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) -- Ten resolutely celibate sharks at the National Sea Life Center are getting a blast of Barry White in hopes they'll get in the mood for lurve.
``Can't get enough of your love, babe'' and ``You're the first, the last, my everything,'' has been blasting out of the loudspeakers at 10 tope sharks -- five male, five female.
Curator Josie Sutherland said Tuesday that staff have been impressed by U.S. research showing fish are not only affected by music but also sensitive to different types.
``We're hoping that the music will tempt them into feeling more romantic,'' Sutherland said.
Researchers at the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Mass., tested various sounds on koi carp and found that music relaxed them and put them in the mood to breed.
``We think it might work on tope, which are a bit more intelligent,'' Sutherland said.
She said after the first blast of Barry White, the tope ``did seem to be a bit more excited and chasing each other round the tank.'' But that's as far as they've gotten.
``We'll know if they are likely to mate as the male chases the female and tries to bite her back and pectoral fins in the early stages of courtship,'' Sutherland said.
The tope sharks swim in a showpiece 210,000-gallon tank with dogfish and starry smooth hound fish. The fish, however, have no need for atmospherics. All have been bred successfully at the center.
The music is only being piped into the visitor tunnel that surrounds the tank. ``But if we have to, we'll get an underwater speaker and do it that way,'' Sutherland said.
