Dating in Brooklyn is too often a neurotic
dodge ball game of personal ads, bar hopping, e-mail and phone
tag whose inscrutable, often fruitless rules seem a universe
apart from the natural instincts and pragmatic sense of our fellow
beings.
Sensing the need for a new dating ritual, the New York Aquarium,
already home to thousands of specimens of marine life, is turning
its attention to human coupling with a first-ever Valentine’s
weekend singles event, "Sex in the Sea," set to take
place Saturday, Feb. 15 at 7 pm.
The aquarium, at West Eighth Street and Surf Avenue in Coney
Island, will host an evening of wine, cheese and mingling for
singles over 21. Aquarium educational staff will be on hand to
explain the courtship and mating rituals of various species in
a series of informal guided tours through the exhibits.
Somewhere between the wine and the walrus habitat -macho male
walruses keep harems proportional to the volumes of their bass
bellows – education curator Merryl Kafka, who came up with the
idea for the event, hopes guests will spark a relationship of
their own.
Although she’s hoping participants will have a night of enlightenment
mixed with sexual chemistry, Kafka doesn’t expect them to take
a page from the Nassau grouper, a Caribbean fish that swings
both ways to guarantee the survival of the species.
"Because these fish are hermaphrodites, if two males meet,
no problem. One becomes a female," said Kafka, noting that
the reaction works the other way when two females hook up. "In
the ocean world everything is really very different. There are
a tremendous variety of strategies for courtship and mating and
having a baby."
Kafka cited the sea horse as another example. A female sea horse,
said Kafka, "puts eggs in the male’s pouch. The male literally
almost becomes pregnant and [he] will carry the eggs" through
to labor.
"We call them Mr. Mom," she said.
Very enlightened, these sea horses, but it is not likely humans
will claim the same feat anytime soon. The most humanistic courtship
model probably comes from the penguins, which – divorce statistics
be damned – "usually mate for life," according to the
aquarium’s senior teacher, Bob Cummings. Like feisty Brooklynites,
Cummings said, a pair of penguins in a committed relationship
"will actually fight for nesting space," going so far
as to "poke each other," to make sure they get their
choice.
But Kafka is quick to emphasize that meeting, not mating is the
goal of "Sex in the Sea."
"There’s enough people in the world," she said. "I
don’t want to exceed the breeding capacity of humans, but what
I would like to do is increase the meeting capacity, that’s the
thing."
"Sex in the Sea," said Kafka, is the first aquarium
event targeted specifically toward single adults. This was just
the next element in developing social, educational events that
will make use of the facility at night, she said.
Fran Hackett, associate manager of communications at the New
York Aquarium, hopes for a turnout of about 50 guests at "Sex
in the Sea."
"We hope that it’s successful," said Hackett, who is
single. "I may even go," she said, adding, "Even
if I wasn’t [single], I’d just go to watch."
Proceeds from "Sex in the Sea" ticket sales go to school
programs organized by the aquarium’s education department.
At last count, just one man had signed up. Unless one of the
women knows the secrets of the Nassau grouper, he may be one
very lucky lad.
"Sex in the Sea" will take place at the New York Aquarium,
West Eighth Street at Surf Avenue in Coney Island, on Feb. 15,
7-9 pm. Admission is $23 for members, $25 for non-members. For
reservations, call (718) 265-3448.
