Nature
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Thrashing yet graceful, aggressive yet misunderstood – if one species in the animal kingdom is a metalhead, it would have to be the great white shark.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.A documentary film crew found that blasting death metal tunes into the water can actually help attract great white sharks. Filming for the Shark Week show “Bride of Jaws,” the Discovery Channel film crew used a military underwater speaker to pump out heavy metal in the sea to try to attract a 4.8 meter (16 foot) shark, awesomely known as “Joan of Shark.” They didn’t attract Joan, however they did entice two others to come up to the boat, one of which was over 4.2 meters (14 feet) long.
Sharks feel the vibrations of sound waves through their lateral line, a sense organ that runs through their head right down the side of their body to their tail fin. Great whites are supersensitive to low-frequency vibrations, which they use to detect shoals of fish, so the thumping, rumbling tones and beats of death metal are perfect for the sharks to pick up on.
This isn’t the first time great white sharks have been known to like their music a little heavy. A few years ago, an Australian shark tour operator, found out AC/DC songs had a similar effect.
Main image credit: Travelbag Ltd/Flickr. (CC BY 2.0)
