Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe

Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe
Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe
	Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe
	36°47′55″N 137°23′17″E / 36.7985°N 137.3881°E
Date opened	July 20, 1990
Location	Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, Japan
Land area	10,576 m2 (113,840 sq ft)
No. of animals	20,000
No. of species	400
Volume of largest tank	A 620,000 litres (164,000 US gal) warm current tank and a 300,000 litres (79,000 US gal) cold current tank
Total volume of tanks	3,000,000 litres (793,000 US gal)
Annual visitors	250,000
Memberships	JAZA
Major exhibits	Two Shark Tunnels
Management	Kamori Kanko
Website	https://en.nixe.co.jp/

Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe(登別マリンパークニクス, Noboribetsu marinpāku nikusu) is a Japanese public aquarium. located in Noboribetsu, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the one of largest aquarium in Hokkaido, with several buildings constructed around a Western-style castle building.^[4]^[5] It is a member of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA)^[6] and the aquarium is accredited as a Museum-equivalent facilities by the Museum Act from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.^[7]

History edit

Cityscape inside the facility

The shark tunnel tank is made by connecting a warm water tank and a cold water tank, with a total water volume of 920,000 litres (243,000 US gal).^[2]

In order to realize the concept of establishing the largest aquarium in Hokkaido, Noboribetsu City established a third-sector company as the main operator with investment from 42 companies in Noboribetsu, and opened the aquarium on July 20, 1990, at a total project cost of approximately 7.3 billion yen.^[5]^[4]

In the first month of its opening, approximately 230,000 people visited the museum^[1] and for the first two years of its opening, it attracted more than 600,000 visitors per year.^[4]

However, from the third year of operation, the number of visitors rapidly dropped to the 400,000 per year range due to the economic downturn caused by the bursting of the bubble economy and the loss of popularity of the opening of the museum, and the museum fell into the red since it had assumed that it would continue to attract approximately 600,000 visitors per year as it had until the second year.^[4]

As a result, in 1997, the private company that had participated in the operation of the third sector effectively withdrew, leaving Noboribetsu City virtually holding the entire operation.^[8]

As a result, "Hokkaido Marine Park," the operating body of the park, fell into a business crisis with accumulated debts of approximately 4.03 billion yen as of January 2001, and on January 18, 2001, Noboribetsu City, Kamori Kanko, and Hokkaido Marine Park reached a basic agreement on "management improvement measures" and signed a memorandum of understanding. On January 18, 2001, Noboribetsu City, Kamori Kanko, and Hokkaido Marine Park signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to transfer management rights of the marine park to Kamori Kanko.^[9]

Under this restructuring plan, Kamori Kanko became the largest shareholder^[9] by transferring the 25% stake (100 million yen investment) owned by Noboribetsu City without compensation, and "Hokkaido Marine Park" became a private company from the third sector.^[4]

Then, Noboribetsu City acquired the park's building for approximately 800 million yen and leased it free of charge for 10 years,^[9] which effectively exempted Noboribetsu City from paying property tax, and "Hokkaido Marine Park" became free of property tax and building The "Hokkaido Marine Park" was no longer burdened with property taxes and building depreciation.

In addition, Shimizu Real Estate, an affiliate of Shimizu Corporation, which was the largest creditor out of the approximately 3.7 billion yen in interest-bearing debt it held at the time, was asked to transfer approximately 2.7 billion yen in debt to the city free of charge,^[9] and of the remaining 1 billion yen, approximately 800 million yen was transferred to the city. The remaining approximately 1 billion yen, about 800 million yen, was eliminated when Noboribetsu City purchased the park's buildings^[9] and most of the interest-bearing debt was effectively forgiven.

After the park became a subsidiary of Kamori Kanko, the number of visitors was estimated at 250,000 to 300,000 per year, and the number of employees was reduced to make the park profitable at that level. As of July 2012, the number of employees was reduced to 28 full-time employees and 50 part-time employees, or about one-fourth of the original staff,^[4] reducing costs.

In addition, the company improved the impression of the food by introducing homemade dishes prepared by chefs, and increased the number of foreign guests from overseas to about 34% of the total visitors, thereby expanding and stabilizing sales.^[4]

The synergistic effects of the exemption of interest-bearing debt, property taxes, and building depreciation, which Noboribetsu City had initiated, and the reduction of expenses and increase in sales, which Kamori Kanko had initiated, enabled the company to return to profitability in a single year from 2006^[4] and to increase its cumulative operating income to ¥2.5 billion, up from ¥2.5 billion in reducing the accumulated deficit by one-tenth to about 0.5 billion yen.^[4]

facility edit

Several sculptures handmade by the keepers are located throughout the facility.

Nixe Castle.^[2]

Inside, there are four floors, an aquarium.^[10] At the entrance, there is an 8 metres (26 ft) high crystal tower tank and two shark tunnels, one for cold-zone fish and the other for warm-zone fish. The two tanks are next to each other and can be viewed from above by escalators.^[2] The building was modeled after Denmark's Egeskov Castle.^[2]

Dolphin show pool
sea lion show pool
sealring pool: newly built after privatization.^[4]
Penguin pavilion.

The parade is held throughout the year, and the penguins that parade differ depending on the season. (King penguin, gentoo penguin, and Cape penguin)

Riku-zoku-kan: newly established after privatization.^[4]
Amusement park "Nixland".

Cash playground equipment including a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, whale train, poltergeist pavilion, battery cars, etc.

Research and conservation edit

breeding award from JAZA

The aquarium is committed to captive breeding of organisms, and in the past has successfully new bred 10 species and received a breeding award from JAZA.^[11]

Penguins at Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe

In 2021, a joint research team at the Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe, Azabu University and Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine elucidated pathological changes in individuals that lead to early detection of avian aspergillosis, a respiratory disease that penguins are particularly susceptible to and has been considered difficult to treat, and published their research results on diagnosis and treatment by CT scan in the Official Journal of the Japanese Society of Veterinary Science, an academic journal.^[12] This research received the 2021 Japanese Society of Wildlife Medicine Best Paper Award.^[13]

Other events edit

At Noboribetsu Beach Park, the front garden of Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe, a two-day festival called Waku Waku Square Noboribetsu is held every July.^[14]^[15]。