Overcrowded sardine exhibit, response from Kujukuri

A response has been received from the town of Kujukuri regarding the 3,000 sardines being kept in overcrowded conditions at the entrance to the Sea Station Kujukuri Sardine Museum operated by the town of Kujukuri, Chiba Prefecture.

The mortality rate of sardines in the tank is approximately 16.6% per year.
Sardines are not replaced, but added once a year.
The stocking density (volume and number of animals) is about 6.8 square meters and about 3,000 sardines.
Weak sardines are treated by a contractor (details of treatment were not given).

As for the request to discontinue the sardine exhibit, the response is as follows:

“The sardine tank was installed as one of the purposes of attracting visitors to our facility, and we think it is well received.
In addition, as of April 1, 2023, with the approval of the Town Council, we have already contracted with a private company to maintain the water tank for one year until March 31, 2024, and we believe that it would be difficult to make any immediate changes.However, we will take your valuable opinions about the display tank very seriously, and since the sardines have been kept in the tank for a long time, we will not release them into the sea, but will keep in mind the breeding density and raise them with love and affection, despite of the difficulty of keeping them.
Meanwhile, we would keep discussing our future plan with stakeholders, including a possibility of the video exhibit etc.”

If the volume is 6.8 ㎥ (though ㎡ in the answer), it would be about 2 m wide x 1.7 m deep x 2 m high, which is narrower in depth than we had expected. The operation seems like this: the weak or dead fish are took out and new fish are put once a year.

Sardine catches have declined sharply in the waters around Japan from the early to late 1990s, and they are now becoming scarce. In such a situation, is there any justification for keeping the fish in this small, inorganic tank, where they are rarely seen by people, continue to die, and the dead body is replaced with new fish again and again? Fish should be able to continue to express their natural behavior in the vastness of the sea.

No one feels any love for this way of keeping fish. It is good news that they are considering a video exhibit, but we think that the exhibit should be stopped as soon as possible, return fish to the sea, and not let the fish die miserably in this tank.

These fish are not under the penalties of the Animal Welfare and Control Law.There is no need to keep them in this environment for the rest of their precious lives.

We hope that as many people as possible will send their opinions to the town of Kujukuri for the sake of these little lives.