If you ever wondered just how strange this current situation is, that headline is 100% real and we checked the sourcing on it thoroughly.
An aquarium in Tokyo, Japan is requesting help from people across the globe to ensure that its eels remember what humans look like. How are they doing that, you might ask? By getting random peope to FaceTime the eels in their tank. That's right.
You know when people in the '80s and '90s thought we'd have flying cars and robots by 2020? Yeah, nobody saw this part coming at all, did they? Sci-fi writers don't know shit, obviously.
明日開催❗️
人がいないことに慣れてしまったチンアナゴ。近づくだけで穴に潜ってしまい、飼育スタッフが「元気かどうか」の確認が難しく困っています。
みなさんの顔見せで、人間の存在を思い出すようご協力ください🙇https://t.co/gz7ldy743F#お願い人間のこと思い出して#休園中の動物園水族館— すみだ水族館【公式】 (@Sumida_Aquarium) May 2, 2020
Anyway, the spotted garden eels of Tokyo's Sumida Aquarium have begun to forget what human beings look like, as the aquarium has been shut down since March 1st due to lockdown restrictions. Normally, the aquarium's caretakers say, the spotted garden eels are quite happy to see humans peering in at them, but they now fear that they've forgotten what they look like as they've become skittish and distant.
To that end, they've set up five screens around the tank and placed them up against the glass, with the hope that people will take part in a "face-showing festival" from May 3rd to May 5th.
You can take part in the face-showing festival here (just translate the page into English to apply).
