“There are now 250 animals in the aquarium”: the Sevastopol museum was restored after the storm

The first visitors arrived there

The Sevastopol Aquarium Museum, destroyed by the storm, has recovered from the disaster. Today, February 22, the first visitors entered the museum. But due to the tense situation in the region, there were few of them – so far only ten people.

Let us remind you, in November last year, due to a severe storm that hit Sevastopol, the aquarium museum was damaged, on which waves the height of a three-story building fell. As a result of the raging disaster, more than 800 animals died in the museum – exotic fish of very rare breeds. Piranhas, armored pikes and many other animals died.

All this time, the director of the museum, Yuri Kravtsov, and his assistants tried as best they could to put the museum in order. They planned to open it by April 1, but managed to do it much earlier – February 22! This is what director Yuri Kravtsov told MK.

“During the night “black” storm, the main blow fell on the third hall of the aquarium,” recalls Kravtsov. – Our Aquarium Museum is located in the Artillery Bay of the city, almost three meters from the seashore. The Institute of South Sea Biology is located in the same building. The third hall contained nine large aquariums with rare breeds of fish. All of them were representatives of freshwater inhabitants of four continents from around the world. Moreover, each aquarium was designed exactly like the habitats of these animals in their natural habitats. But the disaster caused enormous damage.

The wind then reached 30 meters per second, our spruce trees here were uprooted and scattered along the street, and the shock of the waves was so strong that it seemed as if an earthquake had begun. There was nothing left of the entire embankment; the lanterns there were torn out like matches! Near our museum there was a very beautiful openwork metal gate that stood for 126 years! So they were uprooted and thrown into the sea, and stone blocks of 500-600 kg each were thrown into the yard by the waves. When the waves hit, they rose to the height of a three-story building. Waves fell on the roof of the museum, water entered the room and flooded everything. The wind was strong, blowing from the west, the wave was setting in and the first obstacle she found was precisely the third hall of the Sevastopol Aquarium Museum. All the fish that were in the third hall died.

– So how was the aquarium museum restored?

– Long and hard! We repaired the aquariums and swimming pool, replaced equipment that had broken down, and partially restored the fish collection. We received about 500 animals from the Moscow Oceanarium. Now about 250 animals have been placed in the aquarium, the rest are still in the laboratory. As the work progresses (the external contour of the museum building and the gates still need to be restored), we will begin to replant them. But this will happen when the cold, rain, and storms end. By May 9 we plan to completely restore our animal collection.

I cannot help but say that even when during the Great Patriotic War a 500 kg fascist bomb hit the aquarium, everything burned down, but the premises of the third hall itself remained relatively intact. And here is such damage from the storm, the irresistible forces of nature.

According to Yuri Kravtsov, the first visitors came to the museum today.

“But there are not many of them, because now we have harsh times in Sevastopol,” continues the director of the museum. – Almost every day there is an air raid alert and few people want to go somewhere and take risks.

– What funds were used to make the repairs?

– With my own funds and my personal savings. A lot has gone and a lot more will go. This museum is my whole and my wife’s life. In general, by profession I am a sea captain… And during the war, my wife’s relative saved this museum; he was an artilleryman on a cruiser when they defended Sevastopol.