They are attempting to see if the 5,000 sea bass will so attuned to 20 seconds of programmed sounds that they will return to be fed even after they have been released into the wild.
The aim is to draw the sea bass into the fishermen's nets when they need to be harvested, according to reports in the Boston Globe.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is spending $270,000 on this Buzzards Bay experiment, one of several it is undertaking to improve aquaculture.
The goal of this one is to devise a way for fish farmers to avoid having to supply much of the feed for the bass as they mature into candidates for the dinner table, says the Globe.
Training Fish to Respond to Sounds
US - Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are attempting to train hatchery-raised black sea bass to respond to sounds to be fed.