This year, GNN has featured a variety of stories showing how viral posts on social media do a world of good, all around the world.
Yet another entry in the series comes now from the Netherlands, where a 24-hour live stream of a seal rehab center went viral on social media 8 time zones away in Japan.
The Zeehonden Center in Pieterburen is one of the premier seal hospitals in Northern Europe. They take in sick or injured seals, and handle them in such a way as to maximize the chances of preserving their wild instincts.
This includes rehabilitation from injuries, and fit to purpose, the center has a large pool for young seals to swim in safely. The center set up a 24-hour live stream—a recently popularized tool in the zookeeper and conservationists toolkit to help with outreach and education.
Last Thursday, the Japanese X account @hokahoka_times shared the livestream of the Pieterburen Seal Center with the text: “Let’s all watch a seal sanctuary in the Netherlands for 24 hours.”
That message has now been shared 30,000 times and reached 14 million people.
On the first day, hundreds of additional viewers tuned into the live stream, and donations flooded into the recuse center.
“It was convenient that the seals were just fed, so that viewers in Japan could see that their donations were going well,” says Marco Boshoven, spokesperson for the Seal Center, in a translated statement.
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Boshoven told Nu.nl that the center received in a single day as many donations as they typically receive in a month, so the digital outreach team got to work trying to cater to the Japanese, who by the next day were arriving digitally to watch the seals by the thousands.
“We are answering their questions via a translation program, so there’s an educational side to it as well,” Boshoven said.
わちゃわちゃアザラシ幼稚園🦭 https://t.co/4AKkVXDnef pic.twitter.com/bmM5UH2CIu
— 楠葉さわ🐹🐭 (@kusunohasawa) August 2, 2024
As with many viral events on social media, the popularity of the seals took on a life of its own, with some visual artists quickly sketching up some fan art of the seals.
Boshoven learned that the Japanese affectionately refer to seals in their country as “tea leaves.”
“One of the people we spoke to told me a tea leaf floating upright in the water is a symbol of good fortune.”
“When seals are upright in the water they look a bit like that,” he said, explaining the connection.
HERE’s the live stream…
SHARE The Story Of This Amazing Cultural Confluence Centered On Seals…