Tokyo Oceanarium asked to call the eels so that they get used to people
US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — The Sumida Oceanarium in Tokyo has about 10,000 marine animals of approximately 400 species. It works seven days a week all year round, but during the pandemic, the leadership of the aquarium was forced to close it for visiting. In addition to revenue loss, Sumida faced another unexpected problem.
Spotted garden eels ( Heteroconger hassi ), popular in the oceanarium, from the Conger family, during quarantine, have weaned from people who were usually in large numbers near their aquariums.
Sumida employees filmed a video that shows how blackheads hide in holes when a person approaches.
According to Sumida’s leadership, this behavior of the Heteroconger hassi prevents employees from inspecting the animals to monitor their health and breeding. However, Sumid found an unusual way out of the situation.
They placed tablets near the aquariums and asked those who wanted to help make video calls to these devices so that the eels would get used to people again. Predicting the popularity of such calls, volunteers were asked to spend no more than five minutes communicating with eels to give others the opportunity to participate in the action.
The result exceeded all expectations of Sumida employees, and only a few were lucky to take part in the action, since more than 200 million calls were made to the installed devices. As reported in the aquarium, now Heteroconger hassi are much less afraid of people than at the beginning of the experiment.
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