Japanese theme park thought it was a good idea to freeze 5,000 dead fish in a skating rink
Washington Post
November 28, 2016
A Japanese theme park thought it was a good idea to freeze 5,000 dead fish in a skating rink
By Amy B Wang
An amusement park in southwestern Japan has closed its ice-skating rink after public outrage over the rink's key feature: 5,000 dead fish frozen into the ice itself.
Space World, a theme park in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka prefecture, had opened its new attraction Nov. 12. The rink was packed with 25 types of fish purchased from the city's fish market, according to Mainichi Shimbun. Photos of whale sharks and rays also were placed into the ice, the newspaper reported.
Photos of the rink that were previously on the park's Facebook page showed that some of the fish had been embedded with their mouths agape and their heads partially protruding from the ice. Others were laid out in circular and arrow patterns. One “school” of fish spelled out the word 'hello,' according to Britain's Guardian newspaper.
“We had intended to give the feel of the ocean to this ice skating rink, with the image of fish swimming in the ocean,” Space World general manager Toshimi Takeda told the newspaper. “And we intended to make visitors have fun and learn more about fish.”
Instead, the park was flooded by complaints from patrons and on social media.
“It's as if the fish are alive,” one woman told NHK news. “I feel kind of uncomfortable letting my kids skate on them.”
On Twitter, one person said the attraction had been done “in poor taste.”
“When are you going to stop this [expletive] attraction?” tweeted another.
The park operator issued an apology Sunday on social media and through media interviews and said the rink would be shut down.
“We sincerely apologize to everyone who was upset by the 'Ice Aquarium,' " the theme park tweeted.
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