ArmInfo
Will there be a dolphinarium in Armenia or not? Environmentalists are waiting for President Sargsyan's response.
Head of the Center for Bird Lovers NGO Silva Adamyan says that some 50 organizations, including Aarhus centers, environmental NGOs and international structures, have written a letter against the dolphinarium project and have sent it to the President. "They have told us that the answer will be sent within 15 days," says Adamyan.
The dolphinarium will be built in Komitas Park in Yerevan near the Pantheon, a place where many famous and world-renown Armenian figures are buried. So, it is hardly appropriate both culturally and aesthetically to build a dolphinarium there. In addition, evironmentalists are concerned about the conditions the dolphins will be kept in. Specialists say the dolphinarium is likely to work at the expense of drinking water consumers. The State Inspection for Assessment of Environmental Impact has not approved the project.
In the meanwhile, Bardukh Gabrielyan, Director of the Hydro-ecology and Ichthyology Institute of Armenia, condemned the mess around dolphinarium. He said: "Environmentalists devaluate themselves by protesting the project of dolphinarium. They say that dolphins will not survive in conditions of the dolphinarium. I disagree with this; otherwise it is senseless investing millions in the given project. They say that dolphins have high intellect. The intellect of monkeys is higher. Let's hold them from performing at the circus."
December 09, 2010