January 14, 2019 - According to Dr Radoje Lausevic from the Institute of Marine Biology in Kotor, the manager of the Monte Aqua project, an aquarium with 16 pools of 250 m² built under the Marine Biodiversity Conservation Center, the Institute will open in June 2020 instead of June this year.
"In communication with the donor, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented by the embassy in Belgrade, we agreed to extend the duration of the project for 12 months. It is primarily due to the demand for space reconstruction at the Institute of Marine Biology, which has just begun. We are currently in the phase of scrapping the premises on the ground floor of the Institute, and very soon, in a month, a significant reconstruction of the complete ground floor installation will begin, covering about 300 square meters," Dr Lausevic told Radio Kotor.
During the next two months, the Institute will announce a public invitation to acquire aquarium equipment to be installed during 2019.
"We hope the aquarium will receive its first visitors by the end of spring 2020," said Dr Lausevic.
The donation of Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, over half a million Euros, was planned to be implemented from 4 December 2017 to 4 June 2019, but for objective reasons, the partners agreed to the 12 months extension.
In the aquarium in Kotor, future visitors will be able to see different organisms living in the Adriatic and other seas.
In addition to standard aquariums, information panels, exposed shells and stones, the youngest visitors will be able to use a “touch tank” where they will be able to contact certain species (shells, sea stars).
The entrance to the aquarium will be on the side of the Dobrota promenade.
The courtyard of the Institute of Marine Biology will also be the part of the Center for the Conservation of Biodiversity, with an outdoor setting, whose theme will be marine ecosystems, fisheries, and waste at sea.
The Aquarium will hire new workers and guides, and as its maintenance is rather expensive, rough estimates of between EUR 25 and EUR 30,000 a month, so the Institute of Marine Biology will charge the tickets.
Project design the Institute entrusted to Enforma Studio from Kotor in cooperation with Oscar di Santo, the consultant from Italian company Panaqua.
Source: Radio Kotor
