An aquarium in Yamagata Prefecture has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to feed its world-leading collection of jellyfish, as it struggles to stay afloat amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Kamo Aquarium in the city of Tsuruoka usually draws around 500,000 visitors a year. But, due to the pandemic, visitor numbers in the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, stand at just 210,000 as of the end of January.
The sharp decline has left the aquarium tight on funds to purchase brine shrimp, a type of plankton that serves as the food source for its collection of some 60 species of jellyfish.