Yerevan “Nemo” Dolphinarium Has No Certified Specialists to Take Care of Dolphins: They are Invited from Ukraine

EcoLur

“Our dolphinarium is like barrel in the picture. But we wanted to show that even always-smiling dolphin can’t smile in the barrel,” said Avetik, the author of the poster “Dolphin in Barrel”, who had prepared a whole series of pictures for the World Day for Captive Dolphins. This demonstration held by the Center for Bird Lovers in protection of dolphins was held on 7 July near “Nemo” Dolphinarium in Komitas Garden.

NGO Chairman Silva Adamyan said, “They don’t have any permitting documents. It’s completely unclear how they work. We have applied to official bodies from the very beginning of the construction of dolphinarium, both Yerevan Municipality, and Nature protection Ministry. No documents and no response to this illegal action.” She said, under internal information she has received, dolphins are sick, their teeth and skin are in a bad shape.

“EcoDar” NGO Chairman Hrayr Savzyan said the main thing in this demonstration is to generate humane approach to dolphins, which our generation and we are not used to, while there is need to humane approach. We questioned people who came out of the dolphinarium what is their attitude to this demonstration. Most people refused to answer or answered in a rude manner.  Only one woman said: “I don’t think that dolphins are captives. They are in good shape, they jump and present joy. But if specialists assert they are bad and they need better conditions and more space, I am for dolphins.”

What do the dolphinarium management or specialists think who are responsible for the health of animals in confinement? After numerous attempts, the press managed to get some answers to its questions. It turns out Yerevan Zoo doesn’t have zoologists and vets as such a water zoo  with show elements is supposed to have. “If something happens with dolphins, we have a doctor in the Ukraine who will immediately come upon request,” said trained Sergey and his assistant. It should be mentioned that flights from Yerevan to any Ukrainian airport are carried out 1-2 times per week. It’s true that trainers said that so far there has been no need of such urgent calls.

Trainers themselves have diplomas of a manager-economist.  

“I would like to go and study for this specialization so as to get a diploma in this major, but we don’t have such educational institutions where we can learn how to work with dolphins. That’s why we mastered it by ourselves and it’s already 10 years we have been working in this sphere,” Sergey said. He insisted water there also complied with all the standards designed for dolphins, water is changed three times a day with adding special salts so as to resemble sea water. We would like to add to this statement, under our data received in February 2011, “Yerevanjur” CJSC inspection conducted examinations in the dolphinarium when large violations of water consumption were detected. Nevertheless, drawn-up acts were eliminated based on a phone call from “above.” According to employees, if the whole consumption of water were taken into consideration, the dolphinarium would just go broke. At present this inspections has been dissolved and there is nobody to check these facts once again.

Nature Protection Ministry’s inactions in regard with dolphinarium are disputed in court by "Center for Bird Lovers" and “EcoDar” NGOs. Nemo Dolphinarium is the third party in these proceedings.

July 07, 2011 at 18:57