Saturday, March 19, 2011

Latest News From The Japanese Zoos and Aquariums





March 18, 2011


Dear Sir and Madam,

On behalf of JAZA and its membership of 156 members, I announce you that 14 of our member institutions experienced the damages due to the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11, 2011. The worst damage occurred at the institutions that are located on the coast of Tohoku area, the region that has become the center of attention on most international news programs due to the nuclear crisis. The Aquamarine Fukushima and Marinepia Matsushima Aquarium experienced critical damage which includes structural, electrical, and environmental damages.

Due to the inability to distribute resources including feed, water, electricity, and other basic necessities, the zoo and aquariums have suffered greatly in their ability to acquire the proper commodities for the animals. JAZA, in cooperation with our member institutions, has already been cooperating in supplying as many resources as possible to those members affected.

JAZA has received urgent transfer permission under the Act for Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Flauna and Flora of all live species including the Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus), Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus), Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra), Common Murre (Uria aalge), and the Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) from the Ministry of Environment. JAZA is proud to announce the transfers from Aquamarine Fukushima were completed on March 17th, 2011

JAZA also completed the urgent transfer of feed to our institutions in the affected areas which included the Yagiyama Zoological Park in Sendai, the Morioka Zoological Park in Iwate, and the Akita Omoriyama Zoo in Akita.

The details of each affected institution (as of March 14, 2011) are described below:

1. Facilities Damaged (as of March 14, 2011)

Zoos:

A) Akita Omoriyama Zoo (Akita, Akita)

There was no damage on enclosures. They have the difficulty for its lifeline including blackout. It is difficult for them to get the feed.



B) Morioka Zoological Park (Morioka, Iwate)

There was no damage on enclosures and animals. The electricity is cut off. Also they are without water. It is difficult to them to get the fuel and feed.



C) Yagiyama Zoological Park (Sendai, Miyagi)

There is no damage on animals. They need to fix a part of buildings and parking lot. They have the difficulty for its lifeline. It is difficult for them to get the feed.



D) Nasu Animal Kingdom (Nasu, Tochigi)

They got the damage on its hot spring facility. They need to close temporally, but there is no damage at zoo.



E) Kiryugaoka Zoo (Kiryu, Gunma)

They got the cracks and damange on the street inside of zoo. The glasses of office building were broken.



F) Hitachi City Kamine Zoo (Hitachi, Ibaraki)

They are under blackout without water and temporally closed. There was no damage on its facilities and animals. They don’t have enough stock of feed materials.



G) Tobu Zoological Park (Minamisaitama, Saitama)

There was no damage on animal facilities. They got the damage on the play equipments.



Note: The institutions A-C color don’t have the way to get the feed for animals, they requested JAZA to ensure it for them. We continue to get the updates about the damage they have incurred.



Aquariums:

H) Chitose Salmon Museum (Chitose, Hokkaido)

They got damage on a part of their facilities. A part of fishes were died.



I) Aomori Prefectural Asamushi Aquarium (Aomori, Aomori)

They temporally got blackout.



J) Oga Aquarium GAO (Ojika, Akita)

They are under blackout.



K) Marinepia Matsushima Aquarium (Miyagi, Miyagi)

The first floor of their building was flooded by tsunami and the machine room and electric room were submerged completely. This caused huge damage. All of the staff and animals are fine. They have in-house power generation.



L) Aquamarine Fukushima (Iwaki, Fukushima)

There were no human casualties included the staff, volunteers, visitors who were there when tsunami coming, vendors. The tsunami made their facility flooded in first floor, and underground installation and electric system were damaged. There was the massive damage on animals. The alive animals were already transferred to other institutions included Ueno zoo (Tokyo) and Kamogawa Sea World (Kamogawa, Chiba). All of the aquarium owned vehicles cannot be used by the damage of tsunami.



M) Ibaraki Prefectural Oarai Aquarium (Higashiibaraki, Ibaraki)

They are under blackout, but they have in-house power generation. Four parts of plumbing system are broken. A part of parking lot is completely flooded. All of the staff are fine.



N) Epson Aqua Stadium (Tokyo)

There were no human casualties. A part of artificial rocks in the tube tank was broken.



Note: The institutions K-M got the damage by tsunami. We continue to get the updates about the damage they have incurred.



2. Support Received (as of March 18, 2011)

A) The transfer of feed and materials

We brought the feed and materials to the institutions as follows: Yagiyama Zoological Park, Akita Omoriyama Zoo, Morioka Zoological Park.



Itinerary: Leave Tokyo on March 17th, Reach to Yagiyama Zoological Park on 18th, then move to Akita Omoriyama Zoo and Morioka Zoological Park (planning to be there on 19th)



Transport materials: The feed (especially solid feed) and materials that the institutions required



B) Giving animals immediate protection

The marine mammals and birds in Aquamarine Fukushima were transferred to Kamogawa Sea World, Ueno Zoo, Kasai Sea Life Park, Enoshima Aquarium, Izu Mito Sea Paradise.



C) Establishment of the donation system for the affected area and affected institutions



D) Enhancement of information sharing inside and outside of Japan.

We update the information on our website (www.jazga.or.jp), also opened our official Facebook account: www.facebook.com/jaza.jp


3. Ongoing Support and Future Plans


A) Comprehending the details of damage



B) Planning and implementation of the transfer of the required feed and materials continuously



C) Planning of the appropriate physical support for the details of damage, and the urgent protection of animals


We appreciate all of your support to us. We will keep doing our best.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely yours,

Shigeyuki Yamamoto

Chair

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