Music therapy for passionless shark
Published: Thursday, 24 May, 2007, 12:23 PM Doha Time
LONDON: Scientists desperate for reluctant sharks to mate and produce offspring at an aquarium in northwest England plan to pipe the romantic music of Mozart, Beethoven and Puccini into the tank.
‘Bloodnose’, a 20-year-old male brown shark, has spurned the advances of 15-year-old ‘Lucy’ since they were introduced a year ago at the Blackpool Sea Life Centre, aquarists said. Other sharks have also turned out to be cold fish.
“We want to play them the kind of soft and emotional music that inspires powerful emotions in humans,” display supervisor Carey Duckhouse said.
“We hope it’s going to put them in a passionate frame of mind and get them mating.” They will be serenaded with classical greats such as Mozart’s ‘Romanze,’ Puccini’s ‘Nessun Dorma’ and Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ which will be played through speakers over the open-topped tank.
The aquarists turned to classical music after having failed to put the sharks in the mood to mate with the love-songs of the late soul singer Barry White.His greatest hits include ‘Can’t Get Enough’ and ‘I’ve Got So Much to Give.’
Although the attempt appeared to be “a little bit nutty” and “a long shot,” Duckhouse cited a study at the Rowland Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that found fish could listen and process melodies like human beings.
“We will be looking for any noticeable change in behaviour to see if Bloodnose gets a little more amorous towards Lucy,” Duckhouse said.
“Hopefully they will mate and maybe this time next year we will be caring for six or seven little sharks,” she added.
Bloodnose may be slowing down with age as brown sharks usually live for around 25 years.
They are found in the tropical waters of the west Atlantic and Mediterranean, but are not considered man-eaters and are rarely involved in attacks on humans.
The news comes after researchers in the US and Northern Ireland announced on Wednesday that a female hammerhead shark gave birth without mating.– AFP
