
An Aquarium in Japan Wants You to FaceTime With Its Shy Eels
After the aquarium closed its doors to the public on March 1, its population of 300-odd spotted garden eels became increasingly bashful, burrowing into the sand whenever staff members were around. Although that isn’t abnormal behavior for wild garden eels, the ones in captivity at Sumida had adapted to the consistent, non-threatening presence of human visitors, and no longer tried to hide whenever someone approached.
This return to reticence is making it hard for employees to monitor their health, so they’ve devised a plan to reacclimate the tiny creatures to the existence of people: a three-day “face-showing festival” from Sunday, May 3, to Tuesday, May 5. During that time, the aquarium is requesting that people FaceTime the eels, waving or calmly calling out to them for up to 5 minutes before disconnecting.
Since they’ll be using FaceTime, you’ll need an iPhone, iPad, or other iOS device to call in. Staff members will be accepting calls on five tablets around the tanks, so there are five different email addresses you can try if you’d like to chat with the eels:
helpchin001@gmail.com
helpchin002@gmail.com
helpchin003@gmail.com
helpchin004@gmail.com
helpchin005@gmail.com
The lines will be open each day from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m JST, and because Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of EST, participants in the U.S. will technically need to call in the night before; i.e. from Saturday, May 2, to Monday, May 4, between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 1 a.m EST.In other words, it’s the perfect time to read a very short bedtime story to a very small eel.
“i don’t mind eels. except as meals.”
-ogden nash
—
credits: ellen gutosky, mental floss
😉
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i love that the scientists are looking out for them
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This is such a sweet story.
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it is such a happy one.
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How absolutely adorable is this story? I suddenly want to be best friends with a garden eel. Well written and well shared, Beth. You always bring a warm light with your words. And I always love the quotes you leave with us.
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it is such a happy story, though i am just sharing it. written by mental floss (see the bottom for credits), and i love their interesting stories about the world. i also loved nash’s quote and felt it went happily with the story. get busybface-timing, don’t waste another minute!
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This made me smile 😊
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great )
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Add another to the list of virus adaptations, Beth, an interesting solution indeed. Hi, eels!
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i thought so too!
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What an innovative idea!
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I thought so too!
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😍
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Okay. I didn’t think I’d say this about eels, but Awwww!😊
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Me too!
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Now, THAT’s something I don’t think I could’ve made up. Love it.
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So sweet and cute
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How absolutely wonderful. Shy eels need socializing and people can help them. So weird but sweet.
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They do and it is both
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Surprisingly I r eel y like this. great writing and quote!
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❤️
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I thought I’d never utter these words “I’m looking forward to my FaceTime chat tonight with the eels.” Thanks for the heads-up, and the perfect Ogden Nash quote to go with the story.
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You never know what life will bring
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I just tried; three of the lines just kept ringing and then hung up; the other two never rang… I’ll try again tomorrow…
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aww – i hope it works for you –
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I’ll try again tonight, but I think last night may have been the last night… 😦
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This is great – thanks for sharing this with us!
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Who knew?
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Don’t tempt me…
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Go for it!
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Can they see in two dimensions???
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Ah, that I don’t know – leading that to the scientists
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I wouldn’t have even given this more than a cursory glance in normal times, but I’m getting desperate here. Bring on the eels!
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the paradigm shifts –
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what a wonderful opportunity, Beth; I’m thinking of whipping out a few of my shorter, humorous poems and recite them to the eels; after all, they’re a captive audience 🙂
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there you go! this may be your best audience yet! )
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certainly the most compliant, Beth 🙂
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Well, I am constantly amazed at the things we can do during this life changing time. 🙂
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all it takes is someone to think out of the box –
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I love Ogden Nash. I tell everyone he was my friend.
Sent from my iPad
>
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how lucky that would be!
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They’re a bit too snakey for me! lol
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but at least they’re cute little ones )
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I actually saw this on TV. What a sweet thing to do!
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i think so too !
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What fun! I hope they get lots joining in.
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I hope so too )
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These are amazing! 🌟😊🌟
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Aren’t they?
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Shy eels? what next? it goes to show that even eels are suffering during quarantine times. All creatures have feelings and crave attention 🙂
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such a great point, most everything is a bit off balance at this point in time
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This is hilarious. What a fantastic post.
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thank you!
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Love it!
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))))
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