DATELINE: 11 February 2002, 2002

SHARKS GET LOVED UP WITH BARRY WHITE
The Birmingham National Sealife Centre is experimenting with romantic tunes to encourage its captive tope sharks to mate.
Despite considerable success breeding dogfish, the tope appear to be needing some encouragement. Earlier experiments by the Rowland Institute for Science concluded that fish respond to music and can differentiate between different types of tunes. So Birmingham shark curator Josie Sutherland decided to give the research some practical application by serenading the reluctant tope with a selection of loved-up recordings.
The shark's favourite artist appears to be... big bad Barry White. So now you'll know what to hum on your next shark dive for optimum results.

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