Design project of the first public aquarium in Montenegro

At the moment, a preliminary design, a design and the main model of the first public marine aquarium in Montenegro have been created, which will be built on the territory of the Center for Marine Diversity in the Kotor Institute of Marine Biology.

If this project is approved by the relevant commission, then at the end of next week, an international tender will be announced for the selection of contractors for the construction of the first public marine aquarium in Montenegro.

The construction of the first aquarium in Montenegro, the area of ​​which will be 250 m², should begin already in November this year, and the aquarium itself should open on June 4, 2019.

This was confirmed by the director of the Institute of Marine Biology, Dr. Mirko Djurovich, adding that the development of the design of the marine aquarium project in Montenegro was entrusted to Enforma from Kotor, in cooperation with specialist Oscar di Santo from the Italian company Panaqua, which already has more than two It builds and supports various oceanariums throughout Europe for decades.

"Our initial idea was to install several aquariums with a capacity of 20,000 liters, which will house various marine organisms that live in the Adriatic Sea, Bay of Kotor, and in open seas and oceans from around the world. However, due to the careful development of this project, the number and capacity of aquariums will be increased to 60-70 thousand liters. This means that we will have 16 different aquariums, with all kinds of settings, sizes and increased capacity, which will require additional financial resources, "explained Mirko Djurovic

The Institute of Marine Biology of Montenegro has approved a grant of half a million euros for the creation of the Marine Environment Protection Center - Bokaaquarium. Also, the grant was approved by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a grant agreement worth about 558 thousand euros was signed in early December last year by the rector of the University of Montenegro, Danilo Nikolić, and Norwegian Ambassador to Montenegro, Arne Sannes Bjornstad ).

The oceanarium in Kotor will consist of four parts:

- Entrance (room A), where marine inhabitants from all over the world and the Mediterranean Sea will be introduced (aquariums 1-4);
- Central room (room B): Adriatic Sea and southern Adriatic (aquariums 5-11);
- Special part of the room (room C): Bay of Kotor (aquariums 12 and 13);
- Exit (room C): inhabitants of the tropical seas and oceans (aquariums 14-16).

The whole space inside is conceived in such a way that in the darkened rooms with the help of various light effects the accent will be made exclusively on aquariums. In addition, an impressive detail of the interior will be the floor with an imitation of the sea, while walking through which will create the impression of walking on the water from shallow to deep enough.

Interestingly, in addition to standard aquariums with various marine inhabitants, shells and stones, information panels, etc., the so-called "touch tank" will be accessible to the youngest visitors, ie, a place where they can contact certain species of marine organisms : shells, starfish, etc. Also on the territory of the oceanarium, near the exit, a souvenir shop will be located.