To Shut Down the Dolphinarium: Armenian Environmentalists Ready to Go to International Courts

The case of Center of Bird Lovers and Ecodar NGO representative and Prezumpcia consulting center Director Levon Ohanyan vs. RA Ministry of Nature Protection will be heard in a Yerevan administrative court on Sept. 15. The government ministry is being accused of inaction with reference to the newly constructed Nemo Dolphinarium in Yerevan’s Komitas Park, which environmentalists have been demanding be shut down.

 

Center of Bird Lovers NGO President Silva Adamyan spoke to Epress.am Tuesday ahead of the hearing.

 

Adamyan said the administrative court quashed the first lawsuit they launched.

 

“Since the dolphinarium was built, we have sent several letters to city hall and the nature protection ministry, but we have never received a clear argument or response [in relation to the legality of building the aquarium]. We had asked the ministry to survey the environment and provide an evaluation so that there are proven and legal grounds for constructing the building. But we received a short reply from the ministry: ‘That area is not subject to environmental assessment and research.’ Having this response, we appealed to the administrative court, but the court refused, saying that we send an official letter obliging the ministry to conduct a survey. This time too we received a similar response from the ministry,” said the environmentalist.

 

Now having the required response, the group of environmental activists appealed to the court a second time and this time their suit was accepted.

 

Adamyan noted that they showed the court arguments by the US-based Research Center for Animal Life (name could not be confirmed) which state that Armenia does not have the necessary conditions or suitable climate for dolphins to live.

 

“We also presented arguments by different experts and environmentalists in Armenia testifying the fact that Armenia does not have the means to keep dolphins,” she added.

 

The Center for Bird Lovers president also stated that they have appealed to Nemo Dolphinarium management on several occasions to conduct monitoring.

 

“We wanted [them] to conduct monitoring, to check the conditions, the dolphins’ health — but they refuse. I can’t help it, I have to say, it’s completely [an establishment in which no one knows what they’re doing]. Only on the telephone, a woman answered our questions and said that the pool is not [full] of ocean water, they only make additions, the dolphins’ health is rarely checked because experts [have to] come in from other countries,” she said.

 

If they don’t get what they want (that is, the shutting down of the dolphinarium) through the channels available to them in Armenia, Adamyan said, they are prepared to take the issue to the international courts.

 

“We all know what’s going on in Armenia, but at least once will justice prevail or not?” she said.