Japanese donate huge "fish portion" to Dutch seal center after livestream goes viral

Seal center Pieterburen has suddenly attracted a lot of interest from the Japanese, after a Japanese with "quite a few followers" on his X-account shared the center's livestream. "Since then, the livestream has been viewed 15 million times and we have received more than 30,000 euros in donations," Marco Boshoven of the center confirms reporting by NU.nl.

The livestream shows the largest pool the seal center has, where 11 seals about three months old are gaining strength to be released back into the wild. "This is the wave pool where they gain strength and get nice and fat," he said.

The seal center noticed the sudden attention of the Japanese through the reactions they posted on the livestream. "We suddenly went from thirty to a hundred viewers a day to thousands. At one point, we had more than 9,000 current viewers," says Boshoven, still amazed.

"Then we thought: can we get our Japanese viewers to donate a portion of fish?" A portion of fish is a donation of 5 euros, enough to feed a seal for one day. The center depends on donations, gifts, and income from the visitor's center. "People have no idea what it costs to take care of seals, in food and medication. By calling it a portion of fish, we make it tangible."

Boshoven found out why the Japanese were so interested in the animals. "A tea leaf floating upright in the tea symbolizes happiness in Japan. When seals hang upright in the water, they look a bit like that," he told Nu.nl.

According to the Dutch news website, the live stream has already been shared 26,000 times, and over 15 million people have joined it since Thursday to watch the seals.