Satsuki at the Muroran Aquarium in Hokkaido has created a buzz for the way she bangs on a plastic pail to beg for food. (Yuka Suzuki)

Photo/Illutration Satsuki holds a Kerorin pail as she begs for food at the Muroran Aquarium in Muroran, Hokkaido, on Sept. 3. (Yuka Suzuki)

MURORAN, Hokkaido—Visitors from around Japan and overseas continue to flow into the municipal Muroran Aquarium here for a look at Satsuki, a seal that bangs on a plastic pail to beg for food.

In early September, Satsuki, or Satchan for short, was seen treading water with a plastic pail with the word “Kerorin” in her foreflippers. Kerorin is the name of a painkiller, and pails advertising the product are fixtures at public bathhouses in Japan.

Satsuki is an 18-year-old female harbor seal, a species that inhabits waters around the Chishima (Kuril) Islands and Hokkaido.

Harbor seals have a life span of around 25 years in the wild and can live for about 30 years in captivity.

For more than 10 years, Satsuki has used a pail to seek food. But it was only last year that she became a star thanks to social media.

As a pup, Satsuki loved romping with a ball in her flippers. An aquarium worker from a family that operates a public bathhouse gave a Kerorin pail to Satsuki, thinking she would look lovely holding it, officials said.

Her favorite food is fatty sand lance fish, which have seen poor hauls since last year.

Neighboring penguins and Satsuki’s fellow seals are quite picky about their food. But the less-finicky Satsuki consumes about 4 kilograms of fish a day.

The seals fight fiercely for food. Satsuki’s mother, Kaoru, drums strongly on her belly by the side of a feeder to plead for food, while Satsuki bangs on her pail at some distance.

Greedy mates sometimes slam into Satsuki and snatch away her food. But she does not lose her temper and continues to make appeals until another fish is thrown at her.

“Satchan continues waiting patiently, so I end up developing a desire to give her food,” said Akiho Sue, a 25-year-old keeper of sea animals.

After Satsuki’s behavior went viral on social media last year, tourists arrived at the aquarium from around Japan and even Taiwan and China to see the “pail seal.”

Muroran Aquarium, the first aquarium to open in Hokkaido, has been operating for more than 70 years. It started out as a Hokkaido government-run aquarium in 1953.

It is now also called Muroran Minpo Minna no Suizokukan (Muroran Minpo aquarium for all) after the name of a regional newspaper.

Despite Satsuki’s fame, the aquarium has long had financial difficulties, officials said.

“Our aquarium has remained popular among seal lovers this year, but we are struggling as a whole, so I am really hoping that more people will visit us to see what we have here,” said Masaki Nakazawa, director of the aquarium.

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