The rink features
about 5,000 dead sprats, mackerel and other fish that had been bought
from a local market embedded in the ice, some with their mouths still
open in apparent suspended animation. The amusement park in Japan has
been forced to close the skating rink after a torrent of online
criticism
Anger
as Japanese skating rink freezes thousands of fish into ice as
gimmick
The
feature at Space World in Kitakyushu is forced to close after anger
at ‘disrespect for life’ and ‘lack of morality’
Justin McCurry in
Tokyo
Monday 28 November
2016 03.47 GMT
An amusement park in
Japan has been forced to close its skating rink after a torrent of
online criticism over its centrepiece: thousands of fish frozen into
the ice.
Space World in the
city of Kitakyushu, south-west Japan, bowed to pressure to close the
facility on Sunday after an online campaign denouncing the piscine
graveyard as “cruel”, “immoral” and “weird”.
The rink, which was
supposed to have stayed open until the spring, featured about 5,000
dead sprats, mackerel and other fish that had been bought from a
local market embedded in the ice, some with their mouths still open
in apparent suspended animation, according to local media reports.
The fish were also
used to spell out “hello” under the ice and to form an arrow
showing skaters which direction to follow.
Other parts of the
rink showed rays and whale sharks that, the park pointed out, were
merely enlarged photos that had been placed beneath the ice.
The outcry was
prompted after the fish, some of which appear to be swimming in
formation around a pillar, were featured in a local TV report last
week.
Space World’s
Facebook page was inundated with complaints and calls for the
attraction to close.
One commenter said
the park was “disrespectful of life”, while another said it was
displaying an “appalling lack of morality”.
The facility’s
website had touted the Ice Aquarium as an opportunity for visitors to
“glide across the sea” in what it called the first attraction of
its kind in the world.
But on Sunday, the
park announced it was closing the ice rink. “We deeply apologise to
people who felt uncomfortable about the Ice Aquarium event,” it
said in a statement quoted in the Japan Times. “As a result, we
have stopped the event from today.”
A spokesperson told
the Asahi Shimbun that the park was considering holding a memorial
service for the fish next year, adding that the fish were already
dead when they were bought from a local wholesaler.
“Misunderstandings
spread on the internet that the fish were frozen while they were
still alive, but that was not the case,” the spokesperson told the
newspaper. “We should have explained more.”
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