The annual "welcome ceremony in the water" was held at the Toba Aquarium in Toba, Mie Prefecture, with three new employees who are nationally certified divers receiving their official job appointments on behalf of themselves and two other new employees.
On Saturday, the three employees in business suits shouldered air cylinders marked with stickers for beginners, and dived into a huge glass tank that holds about 5,000 members of about 100 marine species, including green sea turtles and Napoleon fishes.
A deputy director, 59, gave one of the new staff documents indicating the new employees' appointments to breeding research departments, and all three washed the tank's glass as their first task.
One of the new employees, a woman aged 22, used an underwater microphone to say: "I will do my best to be a bridge between creatures and visitors as a full-fledged breeder as soon as possible." The new employees were applauded by about 400 visitors.
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