Many tourists and cultural spots have been closed across the nation due to the coronavirus outbreak, and the situation is affecting a popular fish at Sumida Aquarium in the Tokyo Skytree complex, Tokyo.
"Help! Our spotted garden eels are starting to forget humans," a staffer of the aquarium tweeted on April 28 and asked people to help the fish remember human faces through virtual visits with them.
Despite by nature always being on alert for danger and often hiding in the sand, the spotted garden eels kept at the aquarium were used to people and would poke their heads up in front of visitors.
However, about a week after the closure on March 1 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections, the fish reverted to their natural behavior and became shy again. The aquarium believes that the fish have gotten used to an environment in which people rarely approach them. Now they hide themselves even when aquarium staff approach, making it difficult to feed them and check their health.
An aquarium staffer came up with the idea of arranging virtual encounters between the eels and people. The tweet above immediately received a huge number of responses, and by Friday night it had gained more than 130,000 likes. Many people expressed their desire to participate, one even leaving the comment, "This will be one of the highlights of this long holiday."
Tablet devices have been placed in front of the eel tank, where about 300 spotted garden eels live, to display the faces of participants on a video-calling app that lets them watch the eels as well.
The encounters started Sunday and will continue until Tuesday between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
The Golden Week holidays are one of the busiest periods for the aquarium, but it has been unable to offer visitors opportunities to interact with various sea creatures.
"We'd like to post photos and videos of the sea life [at the aquarium] on social media so people will visit us when we reopen," said a manager of the aquarium.
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