Protecting lives, connecting lives. The realizations and lessons that lie behind the simple experience of feeding animals

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Yamakawa Port is a small port on the Motobu Peninsula in the northern part of Okinawa's main island. From here, about a five-minute boat ride away, in a place with a good view of Ie Island, there is an offshore fish tank where marine life such as sharks, rays, and manta rays are kept in the natural sea.

They have their meals twice a day at 10:00 and 14:00. OSC Corporation, which manages the fish pens, uses this time to run a daily tourist program called the "Manta Ray and Shark Observation Experience Tour."

Before I actually experienced it, I thought it was an experience program for families with small children. However, this spectacular nature program, which sees the "food" of large sea creatures from a different angle than the aquarium through an acrylic panel, stimulates the five senses and intellectual curiosity even for adults. Recently, it seems that not only families but also young couples who have seen the OSC's social media posts are also visiting.

*The information is from the time of the interview in March 2023, and tiger sharks are not currently being kept in captivity.

The sight of them eating with their mouths wide open is quite impressive.

• Table of Contents
• The trip starts from the small port of Motobu Town.
• A spectacular meal scene that gives a sense of the strength of life
• Excited by the shark that opens its mouth wide and eats
• Manta rays, a popular attraction at the aquarium
• This experience sparked my interest in environmental issues

The trip starts from the small port of Motobu Town.

Let's go and find the charm of the sea that is different from resorts.

We relied on the car navigation system and drove along a narrow road in the village that made us wonder if we were really on the right road, and finally arrived at Yamakawa Port, our meeting point. This small port, which is probably not well known even among the prefecture's residents, is actually a popular local fishing spot. It was bustling with people holding fishing rods. When we parked the car and headed toward the tour flag, our guide, Mitani Yuta, waved to welcome us. OSC Co., Ltd., which is committed to sustainable regional development while protecting the natural environment, has many staff members, including Mitani, who are professionals who have been in contact with marine life for many years.

After filling out a consent form at the port, I was handed a life jacket. It was not the vest-style one I was familiar with, but a compact belt-style life jacket worn around the waist. It was filled with gas, and if it detected that I had fallen into the water, it would inflate and act like a life jacket. It was easy to move in, but it was also very compact. However, I felt relieved when Mitani told me, "It has never been triggered," and boarded the boat.

This flag is the landmark.

Staff will be on hand to assist you when you board, so you can feel at ease.

Mr. Mitani is a very reliable guide on the sea. Since working at the aquarium, he has been dealing with marine life and environmental issues from every angle, so you will be able to hear his stories.

Offshore fish tank

A spectacular meal scene that gives a sense of the strength of life

Unpredictability is what makes experiencing nature so interesting

About five minutes after the ship departed, we arrived at our destination, rocked by the waves and listening to a talk about the marine life in the pens and the humpback whales that come to the Okinawan waters from January to March. There were six pens there. The pens were about six meters deep. A sturdy curtain-like net was stretched around the outside of the pens, stretching all the way to the seabed, to prevent dangerous creatures from entering from outside the pens.

Unlike an aquarium where you can view the ocean in almost the same conditions every day, in the natural ocean the visibility and visibility of the fish change daily depending on the weather and season. From spring to summer when the water temperature rises the fish become more active and start biting better, and on clear, calm days the water becomes so clear that you can see the fish up to a depth of 20m. However, food is essential to life. Tours are held all year round, unless there are dangerous conditions such as strong winds or lightning. Cloudy and rainy days, and days when the water is cold and lethargic are also natural conditions. Tour participants understand this and are allowed to enjoy nature as it is.

We were told to rotate through three of these fish tanks. First, we went to the tanks housing the scallops (a blue fish of the Scombridae family) and rays. The bait for the day was fillets of squid and bonito in a small bucket. Holding this bucket, we climbed down onto the float that surrounded the tanks, and the fish at the bottom of the water rose to the surface and gathered around. When the boat approached, the fish knew it was time to eat. So cute. Since the diet of each fish was different, we first fed the rays, then the scallops, with different food in two separate feedings. The rays ate very sparingly, but the scallops took the bait with incredible force as soon as they were dropped into the water. We were simply overwhelmed by their ferocity.

The fish in the fish tank are explained in the form of a picture book.

The bait for this day was squid, bonito, mackerel, etc. The fish ate better if they were live fish, not frozen.

A lively bear.

A distinctive feature of sharks is that their eyes turn white when they eat.

Excited by the shark that opens its mouth wide and eats

And then you notice something unexpected.

Once the buckets are empty of food, we return to the boat and move on. Next is the dangerous shark enclosure. Here we find tiger sharks, which are said to be the second most dangerous after the great white shark. Tiger sharks are dangerous sharks that live in the waters off Okinawa, and it is difficult to keep them in an aquarium for long periods of time, so much about their ecology is unknown. The tiger shark here was born at the aquarium and is currently five years old. There are no other facilities in Japan that keep dangerous sharks that are about three meters long for long periods of time. For this reason, many people from all over Japan and overseas come to this place to see the tiger sharks, rather than the manta rays.

Staff members feed the dangerous sharks. It is a powerful sight to see them bite into the food on the end of a stick with their eyes rolled back, and while they are nervous about falling, they are engrossed in watching the sharks while clinging to the railing on the rocking raft. However, when you look closely, you can see that they are a little cute, with their round eyes.

In the fish tank where only sharks were supposed to live, there were also several kinds of small fish. These fish had entered through the gaps in the net, sneakily ate the spilled food, and grew so big that they could not get out. Although they were different sizes and species, they were reproducing in the tank and coexisting well.

Sharks cannot see the bait and eat it, so they may miss it.

Manta rays, a popular attraction at the aquarium

Manta rays eat by rotating clockwise

Finally, we went to the manta pen. Mantas have large bodies and mouths, but in the wild, they feed on plankton floating in the sea. Here, we use a ladle to gently drop a mixture of krill, finely chopped mackerel, and other ingredients into the sea for a balanced nutritional content. The mantas then pour it into their mouths along with seawater and eat it. Before feeding, staff enter the sea to clean the pen, in case there is any trash on the surface of the sea, so they may eat it together. Until recently, there was a lot of pumice, and it was difficult to clean. While waiting for the pen to be cleaned, we were shown the jaw bones of sharks and manta rays. From large ones that can fit your whole face to small ones that can fit your fist, sharks and rays are both cartilaginous fish, but the shape, growth, and size of their teeth vary greatly depending on the species. It is interesting to see that some have multiple layers of teeth growing on the inside, and some have granular teeth like a file.

Once the cage was cleaned, the ladle used for feeding was lightly tapped on the surface of the water. At that signal, the manta ray, which had been on the bottom of the ocean, rose close to the surface and began to swim clockwise around the cage. The manta rays are taught to eat while swimming clockwise so as not to collide with other manta rays when feeding. It was quite impressive to see them open their mouths wide and pour the food in. After eating four ladles' worth of food, the manta ray dived to the bottom of the ocean on its own. I was amazed at the high intelligence of manta rays. The one-hour experience program ended in an instant.

Even something this big.

It sucks in seawater with its large mouth

This experience sparked my interest in environmental issues

There are many challenges. That is why we must think about

"There are many things I would like to convey, such as the differences in dietary habits of the fish and the breeding environment. There are many challenges regarding the environment, and the problem of pumice has yet to be resolved. Meanwhile, many people of all races and ages visit the offshore fish pens, but each has a different perspective. Westerners in particular do not see this program as mere leisure, and many are concerned about whether the environment is appropriate for the animals being kept. We have made it our goal to properly address such concerns, and although our English is poor, we would like to explain as much as we can by preparing materials, etc. Of course, we also welcome questions from children who are enthusiastic about the animals. We would love to help satisfy your children's intellectual curiosity." (Mitani Yuta, Animal Care Technician, Animal Care Management Division 2, OSC Co., Ltd.)

Another attraction of this tour is that you can hear stories that you can't hear anywhere else, such as behind-the-scenes stories of the aquarium and the keepers. There is also a set plan with an admission ticket to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, so you can see the manta rays and sharks you saw here from a different perspective. We hope that you will use the Oriental Hotel Okinawa as your base and spend a full day traveling around the northern part of the island, enjoying the Okinawan sea from various perspectives, and using this as an opportunity to think about the environment.

OSC Corporation

Based on the concept of "Spreading the charm of Okinawa's ocean to the world," our company's role is to create a virtuous cycle in the local economy by using technology to "utilize, transport, and display" Okinawa's rich marine resources, "fish," to add high added value to previously unused resources.

Similarly, at the offshore fish preserve in Motobu Town, you can swim with manta rays on a manta snorkeling tour, and at Hentona in Kunigami Village, you can experience the Yanbaru touch pool and raising them, as well as the Yanbaru fixed net fishing tour. If you are traveling to Okinawa, why not combine this with a drive around Yanbaru and incorporate it into your educational sea experience?

OSC Corporation Official Website (For inquiries, please click here)