Japanese Theme Park Draws Fire for Frozen Fish Ice Rink

What started out as a creative idea for an ice skating rink ended up backfiring on a Japanese theme park when it decided to embed 5,000 frozen sea creatures an ice rink.

The rink at Japan’s Space World closed down after facing a backlash of criticism on social media. The park had posted a photo of images of fish frozen in the ice with the caption, “I am d… d… drowning, s… s… suffocating.”

A spokesman for the park said they were shocked by the reaction, but moved quickly to thaw the ice and remove the dead sea life, which ranged from fish to lobster and squid.

“We were shocked to hear the reaction as the ice skate rink was very popular since it opened two weeks ago,” Toshimi Takeda told CNN. “We had an unprecedented number of visitors.”

In removing the fish, he also claimed the park would conduct an “appropriate religious service” and then reuse them as fertilizer, he told CNN.