Musical bait used to lure whale from Canadian sluice

MONTREAL (AFP) - A wayward whale wallowing inside the sluice gates of a
Canadian power plant is being lured to safety with a unique form of musical bait.

Recordings of whales are being pumped below the waves to lure the beast, nicknamed "Sluice" out of the plant in eastern Nova Scotia, closed for a week by its unwanted guest.

Sluice has so far travelled four kilometres (2.5 miles) following the moaning sounds of fellow humpbacks, said Gerry Conway, of Canada's Fisheries and Oceans department.

But he has yet to cross through the sluice gates which will mark his final passage to freedom.

"With four meals a day, the whale seems to enjoy its stay in the sluice," Conway said.

Dozens of tourists armed with cameras and camcorders have descended on the Annapolis power station, closed since Sluice entered the gates.

The effort to lure the whale out of the power plant with "whale music" is not without precedent -- a similar plan was used to persuade a whale out to sea from the US state of Washington.