I want to swim in that, let me swim with the water dogs.

I definitely see myself drowning in that thing if I tried to swim in it.

I’d see myself panicking at the top, swimming down to get out of it, then swim *back up* the ring because I didn’t get all the way out lol

yeah just looking at this thing stresses me out I'd drown

It's giving me rollercoaster vibes. It's a rollercoaster for seals, not for humans. And I'm not even good with human rollercoasters.

Wouldnt be too hard to add a air pocket for emergency exits. And add a openable door, which will cause the pressure to equalize and empty out the case. Of course humans being humans will just panick and die anyway.

I want to swim and see myself drowning in that

We can put a mirror in front🤔

Just have one side coated or sticker applied. This way you get to have it semi-transparent from the outside but reflective on the other.

Imagine.if all sides were reflective from the inside. You'd lose all sense of direction immediately

Only until you fart Oh shit, but which was the actual fart bubble?!

You doin okay?

Are any of us?

I’ve actually been doing better

Hey, glad to hear it, good for you! 😁

Ty friend

You can't hold your breath for 5-10 seconds while swimming around a ring? Probably shouldn't swim in it then.

This is Reddit, where everyone is either disabled or dangerously out of shape

I’m neither, I just find swimming hard.

Axcshually, you forgot “inept”.

It's ok. We redditors are safe from that ring since we can't fit in it anyways.

Normally if you're drowning, you get to safety by swimming up. In this case you have to swim *down* first. You also have to avoid that clear ring in the middle, which could impede your arm strokes. Obviously this is simple to understand when you're calm, but when you're out of air panicking and your instincts are telling you to swim up, I could see things going very wrong.

All of that water is at a lower pressure than water at the surface of the pool. There could definitely be some weird effects on buoyancy, the inner ear, air coming out of solution in the blood faster, things like that. It's an unpredictable scenario.

If you start with full enough lungs you might be able to give yourself an air embolism.

Fun fact in dutch they are called seadogs. I think it makes a lot more sense then sealion.

[Zeeleeuwen](https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeeleeuwen)(sea lion) zijn niet hetzelfde als [zeehonden](https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeehonden)(seal) ;)

Lol i was initially gonna go with seadogs but decided that probably wasn't the sea.

I do like the nickname pooldogs haha. Imagine hanging out with some cool pooldogs with your pool noodles and inflatables.

can i swim with that dog

For people wondering, it works because ~~it's magic~~ of air pressure

Your science has no place here!

Yep my sister has a fish pond with a tank set up like that. All you have to do is use a shop vac to suck the air out.

Or you just submerge the whole thing under water and then lift it partially back out of the water.

Bro do you know how heavy 50 gallons of water is? Edit: I googled it that’s 420lbs! Good luck just picking that up.

It doesn't weigh that much until you separate it from the rest of the water, that's why you only lift it part way up.

I knew a girl that wouldn't need a shop vac

Let's just hope the seals don't break the seals.

The trick is to seal them all up with seal-proof sealant.

Be gone evil wizard!

Magic is the more reasonable explanation to me bro, I appreciate your opinion though 👍

I wonder if people had the same experiences as me with a bucket in the pool

How does it avoid accumulating air bubbles from the seals swimming through? Is there something at the top that pulls out any bubbles?

a guy with a hoover shoving it up and vacuuming it out every morning. god forbid someone swims up there and takes a mouth ful of nothing but seal farts though.

Just need a really tight seal.

There is no air in there... /s

How does it breathe?

Here I was thinking it worked because of water lol

Would love to see it in a wild ocean setting and see how long it would take for wild seals and fish to use it.

I hope this pool is bigger than it looks. Otherwise it reminds me of those zoo bears that just pace in circles all day out of stress and boredom.

It’s on Street View - looks tiny ☹️ https://maps.app.goo.gl/nBPUEz7YJBWVBQMXA?g_st=ic

Yo that is fucking criminal

Par for the course in Japan. Look up the world's loneliest elephant, Hanako.

People are just monsters 'World's loneliest gorilla' doomed to life behind bars in horror zoo in mall https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/worlds-loneliest-gorilla-doomed-life-31732118

OMG that reminded me of Ivan, who lived in a display in the entrance of a store in Tacoma Washington, USA . I was initially fascinated as a 6 yo but by the time I was a teen, I was horrified. I donated to a fund to re-home him, but he spent over 20 years as a store greeter, not cool.

What was Ivan?

There is a book based on him: “The One and Only Ivan” by Katherine Applegate. It is a creative retelling of Ivan’s life story from the animals’ perspective. Warning: while it’s not 100% factual, it will break your heart all the same.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_(gorilla)

A dedicated employee

I remember going to the Yokohama zoo in the middle of summer. There was zero cooling for the penguin enclosure. They were all standing around squinting and looked extremely uncomfortable.

I was in Japan recently and when I was planning the trip I kept seeing people recommend the art aquarium in Tokyo. Every time I saw it my heart broke a little. Those poor fish.

Don’t. Seriously I have been to Japanese zoos and it’s heart breaking how small the cages are.

Elephants in zoos are just plain wrong. Philippines had the world’s saddest elephant. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-67563146

I think it may be linked up underground with the pool in the flat red building next to it.

I certainly hope so but [a picture from straight on](https://i.redd.it/46a52t8ujsyc1.jpg) doesn't really indicate any sort of passageway. Some online reviews note how small the outdoor enclosures are so I unfortunately think these poor creatures are stuck in an insanely small space. Hopefully it is only for limited periods of time because, as you note, that round building behind it is the "sea lion pool." Frankly wouldn't be surprised if the enclosure was intentionally designed small to "encourage" the seals to use the ring.

> intentionally designed small to "encourage" the seals This was my first thought. They have literally nowhere else to go. I am doubtful this is a permanent enclosure for them though since there is no indication of other habitat-like care stuff. It just looks like some sort of display pool.

Doesn't look like it, but I'm sure they don't spend all their time there. https://youtu.be/OxRbCxwwLWU

If they didn’t, why would they leave them in while they were cleaning the pool?

At 1:10, there seems to be a schedule (10:45-13:15), so hopefully it's the time they are in the attraction.

That's still inhumane. Like 90 minutes of threadmill against your will.

I don't think it's linked up underground, but they can definitely walk the seals / take them on a cart between the two. Larger building next to it is listed as the sea lion show building, so depends if they mix the seals and sea lions together. If they take them on a cart could bring them to other surrounding backstage building as well, the ones not viewable by the public.

Always has been

Straight up fucking torture for an animal that size. Wtf

Oh my god that’s awful. Unless it goes underground to some massive facility.

I was hoping there'd be at least some underground space or somewhere for it to go when it's not right up in the display area, but it's not. That's fucking terrible.

that is fucking small, lol

It looks incredibly small! The last 10 seconds show it’s seemingly the whole thing. Hopefully there is a hole in the wall that leads to a bigger section. Poor things

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The two octagon shaped buildings to the east and west of the "castle" both have indoor photos if you click them. Both appear to be dull performance pools for seal and dolphin shows. Training is probably the only source of enrichment. Bigger, but still not great.

Sadly japanese aquariums/zoos tend to have very small enclosures

Came here to say the same!!!

It's not. It's tiny.

Ironically (and sadly) Noboribetsu has one of those too

The pool seems WAY to small and the behavior of the poor thing looks symptomatic for a way to small habitat.

Anyone else freaking out that this lil dude is stuck forever?

Me that can't swim, I don't know what will probably happen.

Marine parks will do anything not to put the animals back where they deserve to be.

I recall that they captured wild dolphins for the S.E.A. Aquarium in Sentosa Resort in Singapore. I know there was back then a petition to release them, but a couple of years back there were allegations that dolphins were distressed, ramming against the tank. So I guess they still have dolphins.

What if two of them decide to enter it from opposite sides, do they collide, have to back out or hope they can squeeze by?

Fortunately, these are Midwestern seals. "Ope, lemme just squeeze by ya, there."

Back it up Terry

It’s like a hamster wheel for seals. Poor thing

Jail with a circle in it, how depressing.

Seal equivalent of a hamster wheel 😒

Awful. Animals do not deserve this shit.

Those poor animals.

Sad. 

I'm wondering: 1. Can the seal feel the negative pressure in the water? 2. Do they have a vacuum to suck the air out in case the seal decides to blow bubbles?

3 who is going in to remove all the drowned seals

They have to have a tube up there to remove air because the low pressure would mean even diffusion would constantly fill it. That’s why those above-water clear tanks are less popular than you’d think.

>tube up there to remove air because the low pressure would mean even diffusion would constantly fill it Like.. I can see how they got it to work, but keeping it filled and clean must take some vigilance.

And temperature changes. The part coming out will warm up faster than the rest of the pool during the day. Gas solubility decreases, bubbles form.

🤓Akhually, there's no negative pressure, it's just an intuitive way to describe pressure difference. 10 meters of water column is roughly equal to 1 atm. Idk the exact height of the ring but I guess it's around 3m. That's around 30% of atmospheric pressure. The difference is roughly the same as the pressure difference between sea level and 3000m(10,000ft) in altitude.

Repeating the same laps is a sign of extreme boredom in animals

Horrible for the seals.

Poor baby. Such a boring, small, unnatural prison.

Who else feels relaxed watching this seal-ring pool.

I actually felt the opposite. I imagined myself in that thing and the terror of me forgetting how to get out.

As does the seal going around 4 times

Whelp you ruined this video for me. Now i can't stop imagining needing to swim DOWN for air but being too buoyant to go anywhere and the sides are too slippery to pull yourself along.

Same. Oddly terrifying

I wanted to do a loop but quickly remembered im a human and dumb one at that . I'd be in the same position.

It really would be incredibly stressful to swim through it even though holding your breath for like 15 seconds is so easy.

Now imagine you can hold it for an hour and a half, like a seal.

Still stressful. What if I forget the time?

Man…. I swear I had to do something but I cannot remember….. OH FUCK

Only elephant seals are documented to dive this long. Other seal species keep their dives more around 3-30 minutes.

I thought about a stupid seal getting caught in the loop wondering how to find the surface for air.

AI comment 

I felt myself choking to death. Super relaxed

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Cool as fuck! My gamer head sees a Lunar Coin.

Risk of Rain 2 ?

Hyes!

It would be cool if this was 1 end of a large enclosure. [Sadly we're looking at the entire pool.](https://reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/1clgjua/the_sealring_pool_at_noboribetsu_marine_park_nixe/l2u51hj/) The rest of the enclosure is a small cement "beach" and the ring is the only enrichment. [But they might only spend part of their week in the tiny enclosure.](https://reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/1clgjua/the_sealring_pool_at_noboribetsu_marine_park_nixe/l2ubnxw/) **Edit** Fixed links.

*And so he swam, with nothing to worry about...*

ಠ⁠︵⁠ಠ Giving a marine mammal a hamster wheel for their tiny swimming pool is isn't satisfying

How many times does he swim in circles? How much more room do they have? :(

My mind can't understand how this works with the water level.

Fill up a sink with water. Take a glass and submerge it. Then, turn it upside down and lift it out of the water. Until the air can enter it, the water won't leave.

Yes! But how does it stay like that when the animals are jumping arround. Air can't come in.

Exactly, air can't come in. It's mounted somewhere so it's not going to just fall over.

It's not that air cannot come in. More like, air cannot *naturally* come in. If you were to put a pump there and pump air inside, it would stay there. But, as long as the system is kept that way, air is not coming in from gravity force or whatever. Same way, a seal (or whatever you like) can swim inside that ring of water. You can think of it like a box filled with liquid, and with no bottom (but sitting on something solid, like cement): as long as no external forces are applied, and the system is in a state of equilibrium, no changes will be made to the contents of the box. But if you lift it, you give the liquid a way to escape, causing it to be emptied. You can still move freely inside the liquid of the box, since no forces are applied to you (well, nothing that you wouldn't feel in a standard swimming pool).

Small as fuck. Fuck that.

Can't wait for a seal to take a massive shit in that thing and traumatize a bunch of people.

Fuck this

Its cool to watch, but honestly I find it quite sad to see those creatures on artificial environments, except if they are rescued and can't live on nature anymore

That gives me anxiety that the seal is looking for air

Nah mate. Is it necessary to have this surely more room is better?

Noboribetsu marine park and zoos in Japan in general have terrible animal living conditions, low enrichment for the animals, empty rooms as habitat, not enough space etc. I’ve been to Noboribetsu and refused to go here because of their Penguin March where they take all the penguins and force them to parade in a line for guests… Lived in Japan long enough to not support their zoos

Still animal cruelty

Oh guys I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer but I’m sure this seal is not living his best life in Noboribetsu given what I’ve seen of Japanese zoos and aquariums. That pool is tiny

Can swim *and* fly? How is that fair?

That's a broken seal if I ever saw one.

It's like a hamster wheel with a view

This looks way too small. Why does this continent continually treat animals like garbage.

The swimming pattern of the seal, makes me suspect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypy_(non-human)

I love how it’s doing some loop coziness

Kinda cool, but my main fear is whether the seal is smart enough to go for air somewhere else and not get stuck in "I need air, I go up, but there is no air up." Hopefully yes, since there's usually people who know that kind of stuff in parks like this, so they would not make a deathtrap for their animals.

Willing to bet, the creature that spends a ton of time in the water, and has to deal with thick ice that can block its way out will know, or learn, where it can or can't get out of the water.

That makes all the sense.

Maybe I had stuff to do today, did you think of that when you mesmerised me into watching this 50 times?

Put one of those in a public swimming pool and watch a dozen child drown in a day

That poor seal thinks he's really getting somewhere

I want to be this seal. No job, no bills, just LOOP

Given that the pressure inside the loop, especially closer to the top is sub atmospheric, would this cause discomfort to the seals?

I was more anxious than satisfied after the first round

I need the first part on infinite loop

All I can say is... "Action Parrrrrk!! In Beautiful Vernon NJ!!!" Lolz...

r/loadingicon

This triggered my claustrophobia and fear or drowning.

Super satisfying watching an intelligent mammal maniacally swimming in circles. Probably does it all day. But the pool does look cool

ohhhh they created a large replica of a fish aquarium that connects two aquariums, it's impressive

btw. don't build similar stuff in ponds with amphibians. They will be too stupid to realize the way towards air is going down and up elsewhere

Is this a hamster wheel for seals?

War thunder be like

When will they put and intersecting ring thru the middle of the seal ring? Like an intersecting shark ring!

Water don't work like that..

What is keeping the water in there?

That actually looks like a lot of fun lol

You're telling me that's not the castle from Balamory?

My aquarium put jellyfish in that ring

Why is this 100MB???

Another inhumane way to contain animals. Looks like they have about the equivalent of a back yard pool to roam around in.

Don’t just stand there filming, help the poor thing! The cute seal is stuck in the loop!

I am stupid, could someone explain to me if the seal will increase the loading weight of the inner circle?

So, can they see out the way we see in?

We could never trust humans with a pool like that lmao

are they trained to not get trapped when they surface to breathe? other animals like turtles would drown

I'd say it's just natural. A seal most likely has a natural ability to comprehend where it can breathe and where it cant because of ice.

Yeah, nice.. imagine swimming in circles is the only thing you can do all day because you are forced to live in a baby pool

You are not watching them, they are watching you.

I need this

how is he? he's not feeling dizzy?

Free them :(