A frozen fish ice skating rink in Japan was shut down Sunday after critics called it a cruel "ice aquarium" that caused "discomfort to the public."
The rink in Kita-Kyushu featured dead sprats, mackerel, and other fish bought from a local market and embedded in the ice, with some being used to spell out the word "hello" under the ice, reported The Guardian.
The Space World rink's website flouted the attraction, saying that it enabled "visitors to go for a slide on the ice of 5,000 frozen fish" and claimed that "the unprecedented attraction must be the world's first, not to mention Japan’s first," reported the newspaper Asahi Shimbun.
Visitors, though, took offense at the sight of the frozen fish in the ice. Many thought the fish had been alive when frozen into position, and Space World received negative comments on its Facebook page after a local television station in Yamaguchi Prefecture highlighted the rink on Saturday.
Some took to social media to call the attraction "tasteless," "sinful," and "a desecration of life," said Sky News.
A Space World official told Asahi Shimbun the theme park wanted to give visitors a sense of "sliding on the sea."
"We purchased fish hauled and sold dead at a market through a dealer," the official said. "Misunderstanding spread on the Internet that the fish were frozen alive, but that was not the case. We should have explained more."
Toshimi Takeda, general manager of Space World told Sky News the fish will be replaced.
The response on Twitter was decidedly cold.
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