RIP Minazo The 'Bukkit' Seal

When Internet Memes Die, They Really Die!

Minazo, the elephant seal behind the LOLCat-style meme "I has a bucket" has passed on to the great bucket in the sky.

Popular Enoshima aquarium seal dies after 10 1/2-year run

YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Minazo, Japan's largest seal, died this week having charmed visitors for 10 1/2 years at Enoshima Aquarium in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, aquarium officials said.

The 11-year-old male, 4.5-meters long and weighing about 2 tons, was the largest seal ever raised by a Japanese aquarium. The animal died Tuesday after its appetite began to rapidly weaken the day before, officials said. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Minazo was brought to Japan from Uruguay in 1995. The seal soon mastered a variety of comical feats, including a popular stunt in which he held a bucket with one flipper while sticking out his tongue.

In lieu of flowers, send buckets of fish to your local Sea World.

UPDATE: It appears I was schnookered. The damn seal died in 2005, and that's the date on the Japanese news article.