Fish 'mate up' for Blackpool Pride

9:23pm Saturday 17th May 2008

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As the resort hosts Blackpool Pride weekend two male fish at Blackpool Sealife Centre have been spotted engaging in mating behaviour!

The antics of the two male Tawny Nurse Sharks were noticed by display supervisor, Carey Duckhouse, as she carried out her daily checks at the central Promenade tourist venue.

Having had no offspring from this species in the past Carey was extremely 'excited' until she realised the romantic duo were the same sex.

"We've even tried to encourage some of our sharks to mate by playing them romantic classical music but without success," said Carey.

Underwater liaisons of the gay' variety have not been confined to the centre's ocean tank either.

A pair of male big-bellied seahorses have been performing an elaborate mating dancewith each otherwatched by a seemingly bemused female.

There have even been a few sex changes among the clearly very liberal residents of the north west's marine life attraction.

"We've a few cuckoo wrasse that have transformed from female to male in a process that involves a dramatic colour change," said Carey.

"What fewer people realise however is that Gary the grouper, a 25 stone giant who lives with the sharks in our ocean tank, used to be called Geraldine.

"Whenever there are two or more groupers in the same vicinity the largest or most dominant will undergo the biological transformation to become male," said Carey.

"That's exactly what happened with Gary."

In fact all of the Sea Life Centre's apparent gender confusion might be fishy, but it's also entirely normal, according to the centre's fish experts.

"It's nothing to do with anything in the water, which we draw direct from the sea via a pipe line buried beneath the sand," promised Carey.