Rock Band Kiss Is Holding an Underwater Concert for Sharks. Is That Bad for Sharks?

In this edition of Ask a Marine Biologist, Dr. David Shiffman answers a question that’s been blowing up his social media mentions.

Question: The rock band Kiss has announced that they are holding an underwater concert for great white sharks. Is that as dumb as it sounds? Will it hurt sharks? Can sharks even hear it?

—More people than I could count asked me about this on social media after Airbnb announced this concert, which is a real thing that is happening.

Answer: This is pretty dumb, but won’t cause harm.

First of all, there’s been some confusion about what exactly this event involves. As part of a new “animal experiences” campaign, Airbnb is giving eight people the chance to watch from a glass-bottom boat off the southern coast of Australia as the rock band Kiss plays music that’s projected to sharks by speakers underwater. The band itself will be above water.

Before you start looking for flights Down Under, you should know you’ve already been beat out by what I can only imagine are very high-ranking members of the Kiss Army. The concert, scheduled for November 18, is sold out.

So, will cranking it up to 11 and blasting “Detroit Rock City” underwater ultimately cause harm to animals? Probably not. While noise pollution is a problem increasingly plaguing the marine environment and causing all sorts of harm, this is a temporary and relatively quiet event that shouldn’t be too much trouble. I was pleased to find that Airbnb’s animal experiences are backed by some pretty solid animal welfare guidelines, which means that stunts like this “underwater concert,” while profoundly stupid, shouldn’t cause harm. It’s also worth noting here that this concert will raise money for a local ocean conservation charity, the Australian Marine Conservation Society, a group that focuses on issues like Great Barrier Reef conservation, sustainable fisheries, marine protected areas, ocean plastic pollution, and yes, shark conservation.

As for why they’re doing this, it turns out that real scientific research has shown that some species of sharks are attracted to low-frequency pulsed sounds. Some shark cage diving operators swear that particular styles of music work better for attracting sharks than others, which has been repeated often on Shark Week shows and is likely the origin of this idea. To my knowledge, this claim has not been experimentally tested. However, it is entirely possible that this “underwater concert” will actually attract sharks and other wildlife to the boat, which may very well be due to an “it sounds like food is over here” rather than a “what the heck is that” reaction. (Which doesn’t mean that this whole thing isn’t a stupid idea. Yes, sharks are attracted to certain sounds, but that doesn’t mean a song that contains some of those sounds is any better than just playing low-frequency pulsed sounds. And even if sharks are indeed more responsive to certain sounds found in certain genres of music, a recording of the song would work just as well as a live performance for these purposes.)

Will sharks actually be able to hear the music from the concert? Kinda-sorta-not-really. They’ll definitely be able to hear noise, especially the lower-frequency bass components, says Dr. Stephen Kajiura, a shark sensory biology expert at Florida Atlantic University who was kind enough to answer my ridiculous questions about this, but they probably won’t be able to hear vocals or guitar. He also notes that any shark passing close enough to the concert will feel physical vibrations from the speakers as sound travels through water, using a sensory organ called a “lateral line.”

So yes, this Kiss concert “for sharks” is a real thing that is happening, not a corporate April Fools’ Day joke or a bad dream that I had, nor further proof that the world is conspiring to annoy me (well, it may be that last part). Sharks will indeed be able to hear some of it, and it may (but probably will not) even attract sharks to the boat. It won’t hurt the sharks, it may give the guests a show, and it’ll raise a little bit of money for charity. But it is a very, very dumb thing in a long line of weird sharksploitation stunts, and I would not be sad if it didn’t happen.

Ask a Marine Biologist is a biweekly column where Dr. David Shiffman answers your questions about the underwater world. Topics are chosen from reader-submitted queries as well as data from common internet searches. If you have a question you’d like answered in a future Ask a Marine Biologist column, or if you have a question about the answer given in this column, email Shiffman at WhySharksMatter@gmail.com with subject line “Ask a marine biologist.”

Dr. David Shiffman is a marine conservation biologist specializing in the ecology and conservation of sharks. An award-winning public science educator, David has spoken to thousands of people around the world about marine biology and conservation and has bylines with the Washington Post, Scientific American, New Scientist, Gizmodo and more. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, where he’s always happy to answer any questions about sharks.