Heartbreaking loss of life occurs at one of the city’s most popular aquariums.

On November 8, visitors to the Sunshine Aquarium in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro neighborhood, one of three aquariums in the downtown area, were shocked to find the facility’s largest tank almost completely devoid of its usual marine life. As seen above, the Sunshine Lagoon tank, which measures 12 meters (39 feet) by 10 meters, is ordinarily home to some 1,300 aquatic creatures, representing roughly 50 species of fish, rays, and eels.

However, on November 7, the aquarium staff noticed that a number of the creatures had taken ill. To treat their condition, a medicinal solution was introduced into the tank, and in order to boost its effectiveness, certain components of the tank’s circulation system were temporarily shut down. However, this resulted in a shortage of oxygen, causing the deaths of more than 1,200 of the tank’s inhabitants.

On November 9, Japanese Twitter user @ipen_3 visited the facility and stood in front of the nearly empty Sunshine Lagoon tank, which is now home to less than 10 percent of its previous animal population. He snapped a picture, with the sadness of what had transpired reflected in a dimly illuminated young girl peering into the tank, searching in vain for the lost members of the Sunshine Aquarium family.

▼ It’s kind of creepy that her head and feet are facing in opposite directions, but @ipen_3 chalks this up to the picture being a panorama time-lapse shot.

The aquarium has said it hopes to restock the tank and return it to its conditions prior to the incident.

Reference: Nitele News 24
Top image ©SoraNews24
Insert images: Twitter/@ipen_3
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