In Sevastopol, there is a conflict over an aquarium operating according to Ukrainian documents
The Sevastopol Marine Aquarium Museum may lose its historical building on Primorsky Boulevard. Its balance holder, the Institute of Biology of the South Seas, does not intend to renew the building's lease agreement on the same terms, and demands that the entire zoological collection be transferred to Sevastopol Marine Aquarium Museum LLC, which will receive profits from the aquarium and divide it between the institute and the current owners of marine fauna representatives LLC "Trading House" Hess and Co. ", PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
This October, the Sevastopol Aquarium Museum celebrated its 125th anniversary. As a biological station, it was created at the expense of the merchant Alexander Kuznetsov on the site of the Nikolaev battery blown up during the Crimean War. During its entire operation, the aquarium museum was closed twice - in 1941, when the building was hit by a German aerial bomb, and the collection was destroyed in a fire along with the library, and in November 1993, when the state of Ukraine could not afford such a scientific heritage. The activities of the aquarium were resumed through the efforts of private owners. The Hess & Co trading house restored three halls, updating the equipment and collection. Soon it no longer fit, and the area of the aquarium was expanded to 1 sq. m.
“The lease agreement for the building was concluded in 1997 for 25 years, and on December 1 of this year the contract ended,” says TD director Yuri Kravtsov. “The institute doesn’t want to extend it and demands us to go out and destroy the collection of living inhabitants. The aquarium itself with its collection without premises costs approximately 200 million rubles; it took almost 30 years to create. For example, the collection of Black Sea inhabitants is the most complete in the world.”
Each side decided to prove its case in court. The trading house demands to extend the lease on the same terms, and InBYUM demands to terminate the contract and vacate the building.
“It is physically impossible now to move the animals in any way, especially the tropical ones in the fifth hall,” says the director of the aquarium, Alexey Ershov. “They will definitely die.” Any attempt to move these animals, sharks or beluga, simply transporting them somewhere, gives a 90% chance of death. In fact, it turns out that if we are asked from here, these animals will die in any case. They cannot be transported, that is the main question. This is not just an aquarium - it’s a museum, it’s a scientific and educational complex.”
The administration of the FITs InBYUM insists that the previous lease terms ended along with the Ukrainian-style agreement. And now, in order for a trading house to rent a building historically intended for an aquarium, it needs to go through all the procedures provided for by federal law - an auction, a competition, the best conditions and prices, and all the large bureaucracy of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, to which the institute belongs. To avoid this, back in 2018, the management of InBYuM entered into a constituent agreement on the creation of a small innovative enterprise - Sevastopol Marine Aquarium Museum LLC. The institute transferred the aquarium premises to the LLC, and the trading house transferred the entire zoological collection of marine animals and museum exhibits. But since the commercial structure did not do this, but continued to use the aquarium building, InBYUM demands compensation for costs in court and to leave the premises.
“Given the enormous importance of the Sevastopol Aquarium-Museum, we urge interested parties to stop speculating on the feelings of concerned residents of the hero city and concentrate their efforts on what is important - preserving the unique collection,” the institute’s administration states. “The Institute of South Sea Biology expresses concern for the fate of all marine inhabitants of the aquarium, is considering various algorithms for saving them, and continues to do its best to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible within the framework of the legislation of the Russian Federation.”
Sevastopol residents are really concerned about the situation, especially after a recent incident when an entrepreneur was unable to continue maintaining the dolphinarium and released dolphins into the open sea. If a similar fate awaits the aquarium’s wards, the city will lose one of its iconic objects, but will become the object of a federal scandal.
Rents made it possible to keep prices consistently low. An adult ticket to the aquarium costs 400 rubles, a child ticket costs 300 rubles, and children under 6 years old are free. Students and pensioners - 300 rubles, for groups of Sevastopol schoolchildren - 150 rubles, military personnel free of charge. At such a cost, one can hardly assume a large profit for TD, while in LLC from InBYuM it clearly must correspond to the idea of federal officials about the attendance of the main tourist sites in Crimea.
“Legally, the requirements of the FITs InBYUM are legal. But of course, in this situation, a compromise and a human solution must be found so that the valuable collection of specimens of marine fauna and flora is not damaged,” Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev described the situation.
A few days later, he assured that the aquarium-museum would remain in the historical building on Primorsky Boulevard. A petition on behalf of the city leadership to the Ministry of Science of the Russian Federation to extend the lease of the building on Nakhimov Avenue will be sent as soon as the owners of the aquarium find a compromise with the administration of the Institute of South Sea Biology.
“The story is really strange,” Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev emphasized on the STV channel. – It is shown as an expected catastrophe, and almost from tomorrow the aquarium will need to be moved out, and rare species of our marine biodiversity will die. But, as always, there are problems with communications. There are undercurrents on both sides, but we have already held a meeting with InYUM - no one planned to evict anyone. Yes, there was a letter, but it was more of a coercive nature to discuss contractual relations.
Indeed, the owner of this aquarium, who developed the facility and added to the collection, had an old Ukrainian agreement. Naturally, it is physically impossible to extend it according to the law. But it is possible to conclude a new agreement in the Russian legal framework.”
According to Razvozhaev, the owner of the collection, the Hess and Co. Trading House, needs to collect the necessary set of documents and submit them to conclude an agreement. Of course, the rental cost will be higher than before. The governor did not specify how this would affect the price of a visit.
“For me, the main thing is that there will be no catastrophe, no urgent eviction is planned, it’s just that the two economic parties must agree,” says Razvozhaev. – This is an important facility for Sevastopol, the largest aquarium in the country. It has already survived closure twice, and now looks very decent. Our task is for the object to be preserved, but the owner must also fulfill certain conditions in order to live within the legal framework.
The institute is a federal institution, subordinate to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, they will need the approval of the ministry for a new agreement. This issue can be resolved. “I will petition for the aquarium museum to continue to operate in its original location and delight Sevastopol residents and guests of the city.”
InYUM also hastened to assure that nothing threatens the marine collection of the Sevastopol Aquarium.
“I can assure you and the public that today the institute is the driving force in solving this issue and preserving the maritime collection. If it comes to the point that the owner of the collection begins to destroy it, then we are ready to take over this collection and continue to develop it. We will not allow the collection to be destroyed,” Yaroslav Andronchik, deputy director for administrative and economic affairs at the Institute of Youth and Youth, told Radio Crimea.
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